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PEN PARABLES 




By PETER I. NEEFUS 



* 



AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 

150 Nassau Street 
New York 



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Copyright, 1911, by 
American Tract Society 






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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Foreword 5 

Joy in Service 9 

Conversions and Converts . . . . . .31 

Organizing the New Church 47 

Joining the Church 53 

Church Membership 57 

The Conduct of Christians 59 

The Prayer-Meeting ... . . . . .69 

Inconsistent Church Members 71 

Recreation and the Church Member ... 78 

Church Bosses 82 

Church Splits and the Quarrels op Chris- 
tians . 97 

Denominational "Lapping" 105 

The Sabbath, the Church and Labor . . .107 

Sunday Newspapers Ill 

3 



4 TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Rum, Legislation and Christianity . . .114 
The Early Training of Children . . . .123 

The Sabbath School 129 

Learning the Catechism 136 

Letters to the Young 142 

Early Gathered 151 

Christian Literature . . . . . .153 

The Tract House, New York 169 

Christian Letters 171 

Memory and Scripture .178 

Dr. Anthon 182 

Henry Ward Beecher 186 

That Famous Blizzard 188 

Coney Island— Sabbath Breaking . . . .189 

Nuggets 191 

Something New for Easter 202 

Anchored Thoughts 205 

Affliction and Consolation ..... 210 

The Ministry of Angels 238 

Communion 240 

Postword 259 





FOREWORD 

ETTERS to intimate friends which 
are the artless, unpremeditated ex- 
pression of a heart's emotion al- 
ways possess a certain interest and 
charm. The extracts in this volume are full of 
such revelations. Some of them were inscribed 
by the writer to friends tried and true; many 
others to those whom not having seen he loved. 
But chiefly they are a record of wide experi- 
ence in the Christian life, and a compendium 
both sympathetic and humorous of practical 
knowledge in church affairs. They are vari-col- 
ored semaphores of warning and direction to the 
inexperienced layman. Although written in the 
years from 1887 to 1891, they are as fresh as if 
set down with yesterday's pen. Here was a man 
keenly observant of life, yet touched with charity 
and tenderness ; one who could be bold in con- 
demnation, yet always with a longing to win the 
5 



6 FOREWORD 

condemned one ; who threw out the golden chains 
of his sympathy wherever there was a cry for 
help. Of him it might be said as of Michael 
Faraday : ' ' He converted his fire into a central 
glow and motive power of life"; but it is love 
for his divine Master which controls this ardor, 
transfusing it into one clear, intense, heaven- 
piercing altar-flame. 

Peter I. Neefus was the descendant of godly 
stock — members of the earliest Dutch Reformed 
Church in America, who had settled on Long Is- 
land. He himself achieved the rare destiny of 
living upon his ancestral acres throughout his 
life. The farm which he inherited from his 
father not only yielded him a fine income, but 
increased immensely in value. His later life 
might have been one of easy opulence, but it was 
his joy to devote it with all his time and means 
to Christ. 

The work to which he gave the fullest enthu- 
siasm of his riper years was the distribution of 
Christian literature. He saw clearly what the 
Church has yet fully to understand, that under 
Providence the " seed-truths" of the Word are to 
reach the people of this age chiefly through the 
printed page. He expended many thousands in 



FOREWORD 



scattering abroad the publications of the Ameri- 
can Tract Society ; and this servant of the churches 
had no more loyal supporter. 

In May, 1909, he entered the heavenly rest 
which it had been his chief delight to forecast in 
imagination for the comfort of the sorrowing. 
The sentiment of his own soul had long been 
embodied in his words to an afflicted brother: 
' ' Let me go, for the heavenly day breaketh. ' ' 



SHES 


^^^^^^^^o^ 


^^^^^^^M 




JOY IN SERVICE 




^jOW the way opens for us to do some- 
thing for our Jesus if we only seek 
and ask! And the burden is not 
heavy — nay, what becomes to us a 
pleasurable duty is not a burden. In the very 
doing for Jesus he gives his beloved rest — sweet 
rest, sweet comfort, sweet peace of soul. And 
this, as you, my brother, know, must be actually 
experienced to be truly and fully appreciated. 
Our dear Saviour is too sensitively loving, com- 
passionate and kind, not to reciprocate with 
richest blessings the least honor done him, by 
the most inefficient, most unworthy of his humble 
servants. 

About three or four years ago I sent a Sunday 
School library to a poor Sabbath School in the 
South, and one to a poor school in the West. I 
also sent them a few copies of the American 
Messenger and the Child's Paper. I received 



10 PEN PARABLES 

from these places most comforting letters, which 
so cheered my heart that I at once set about 
inquiring for other places to which to send the 
words of life. I quickly found them. The Mas- 
ter directed me to them. Now I send Messengers, 
tracts, Child's Papers and libraries in almost 
every direction. 

From all these I receive frequent letters con- 
cerning the Lord's work, and also many personal 
letters, like the one you so kindly aided me in 
answering. I love to answer all the letters ; and 
I can never do it in a cold, business way. I 
always, like yourself, want to write something 
about my Saviour, something comforting, cheer- 
ing, instructive, if possible, and practical. To 
write in this way often necessitates quite lengthy 
letters. These take up considerable time; and 
so, while secular duties also require my attention, 
I often get behind in my correspondence. 

My dear Saviour has reciprocated a heavenly 
blessing to me in the many kind letters I have 
received from you, and from Christian friends in 
many places — letters full of holy love, breathing 
blessings untold. They often come to me as 
heavenly messengers; and as I read them, my 
overwhelmed soul, full of humility before my 



JOY IN SERVICE 11 

blessed Lord, causes the tears of gratitude and 
thanksgiving to flow ; and, entirely overcome by 
the rich blessing of my Saviour, I utter the deep 
joyous emotions of my heaven-delighted soul — 
"Thank thee, thank thee, my dear, precious 
Lord." 



I AM rejoiced that during 1887, as you write 
me, the papers were regularly received every 
month, and that they were so much appreciated 
by those to whom you gave them. I esteem it a 
dear privilege to be permitted by my Lord to 
send you these religious papers, and a great favor 
from him that I have been directed to one who 
will faithfully distribute them. And to you, 
too, my dear friend, the Master has granted a 
great blessing in having put it into your heart to 
give yourself to this good work. 

Many might say, in reference to the matter of 
privilege — " Cannot any person send these Mes- 
sengers, Child's Papers, and catechisms? And 
cannot any one distribute them ? Is not the way 
for doing these things open to a greater or less 
extent to every one?" Yes; if all will, they 
may, but all have not the will. 



12 PEN PARABLES 

My Dear Brother: 

HOW long since I have written to you. I 
chide myself with my negligence; but it 
has not been altogether negligence either; for 
through few of the years of my life have I been 
more busy with my pen than during the one just 
past, and this year to the present time. My pen 
has been given but very little to the world ; given 
to my Lord, I trust, for his glory, and for the 
good of precious souls. 



OH, in what numberless ways can we do good 
if we will only try, and pray to the Lord to 
direct and help us ! In the church, in the Sab- 
bath School, in the singing-school, by a holy 
life, by urging others to live near to Christ, by 
writing letters to those with whom one is ac- 
quainted, whether in Christ or out of him; by 
prayer, by exhortation, by the study of God's 
dear word — how abundant are the means! how 
multiplied the opportunities! how glorious the 
work! 

Not long ago I met with a dear friend whom I 
had not seen for years. In the course of our con- 
versation I spoke of spiritual things. I knew he 



JOY IN SERVICE 13 

was once very active in holy work. To my sur- 
prise, he said : ' ' Well, I am not in the conflict 
now. I am 'drifting.' " By this he meant just 
taking things easy, as they came along. ' ' But, 
said he, ' ' do you know I am not now at my ease, 
nor half so happy as when I was in the hot con- 
flict, with the powers of evil within and without 
me. Oh, what a joy! what a holy satisfaction 
was victory for me over self, over the world, 
though gained at the cost of the severest conflict !" 

REWARDS 

ONE of the happiest souls with whom I am 
acquainted is a dear brother who has now 
been confined about eight years to his room. He 
was kicked in the abdomen by a drunken brother- 
in-law whom he was kindly endeavoring to lead 
home. The kick caused a rupture. For years 
this poor man has suffered intense pains and has 
undergone many most painful operations. He is 
one of the brightest, most intelligent Christians I 
have ever known. He is a ready writer, and oc- 
cupies all his time in writing letters to the breth- 
ren and to impenitent persons. And such letters ! 
I have many of them ; they would make a most 
excellent, instructive volume. The great joy of 



14 PEN PARABLES 

his soul is the holy response the Master sends in 
limitless measure to him for the good he is do- 
ing to others. It is a joy which brings tears; 
and these tears are the result of that humility of 
soul and conscious unworthiness which is the 
fruit of a complete emptying of self. 

IN ARMOR 

I GREATLY rejoice to learn from your letter 
that the Black Lake Mission, in which Mr. 
Blackford and so many dear friends felt such a 
deep interest, has been so greatly blest and pros- 
pered by the good Lord. Although Mr. Black- 
ford, whose heart was deeply interested in this 
mission, is now, I suppose, in such a mental con- 
dition that he knows little about the blessing be- 
ing poured out in answer to his efforts and pray- 
ers, and to the efforts and prayers of those who 
there, hand to hand, toiled with him, yet, in the 
great day of final account, he will not be wanting 
in a rich reward for all his labors there and at 
White Lake. Poor man, I know he has passed 
through a great sea of trial while at his post. 
* * In the world ye shall have tribulation. ' ' In 
fact, does not the path to the glory land lie 
through the waters of trial ? And the more earn- 



JOY IN SERVICE 15 

est, devout, and Christlike the child of the Lord 
is here below, the more prominent mark does he 
become for the world's enmity and for Satan's 
sharp arrows ; and so he comes into tribulation. 



To Mr. J. E. Kinney, Exeter, Florida: 

THE tidings in Mrs. Dilley's letter of the 
holy progress you are making in the Lord's 
work gave me much joy. When you last wrote 
you seemed rather disheartened, but now I am 
led to believe that that disheartenment has given 
place to a joyous encouragement. There must 
have been much prayer, much holy zeal put 
forth, to have accomplished what you have in 
this work. As it is the Lord's work, and he is 
in it, or it would not have prospered thus far, 
there is no doubt but that it shall go on in 
increasing prosperity ; and this prosperity will be 
the bringing of gospel privileges to the older 
persons in the community through the preached 
gospel, and to the dear children through the 
instrumentality of the Sabbath School. 

As an illustration of a similar work, I have 
now in my thought a little community where a 
mission work was started in 1882 (Black Lake, 



16 PEN PARABLES 

New York). Only to-day I received a letter from 
the superintendent of the Sunday School, giving 
me an encouraging account of the work going on 
there. When this mission was first begun it was 
under very unfavorable circumstances — people 
poor, ignorant, irreligious; no means of grace 
among them, and less yet in any of them. At 
first the work lagged ; but at length, through the 
energy of some young disciples of the Master in 
a neighboring church, a building was erected 
and the gospel preached statedly by the pastor of 
that church. A little Sabbath School was also 
started by the young men. Soon, an organ was 
sent them. Interest in the mission and Sunday 
School began to awaken in spite of the many 
prophecies made that all would prove a failure. 
The good work has been going on steadily since 
its beginning, and the promise to-day is brighter 
than ever. 

The Lord Jesus was in the good work by his 
dear Spirit. Begun and carried on in this spirit, 
no failure can come. 

To fail with Christ is for Christ to fail. To 
think that a work begun by him can fail is to 
ascribe weakness to Omnipotence, ignorance to 
Omniscience. 



JOY IN SERVICE 17 

Already many precious souls have been gath- 
ered in in that field from among the hardy 
wood-choppers and their Sabbath-School-educated 
children. I think the field of your labors, the be- 
ginning of your Christian work, bears strong re- 
semblance to that in Black Lake. As it is the 
Lord's work, it shall go on in prosperity if his 
beloved are faithful to him. 

YOU cannot think how it rejoiced me to hear 
of the stimulating effects of the library sent 
to State Bridge. My rejoicing finds glad, hum- 
ble expression of praise and thanksgiving to my 
Lord, not because / sent it, but because he has so 
blest it. With the blessing of the Father, what 
an indefinite multiplication for wondrous good 
may start from the smallest beginnings ! 

In what toil have you and your people been en- 
gaged ! blessed toil ! And how we forget the toil 
when we join hearts and hands in holy prayer 
and in happy congratulation over the results that 
labor has accomplished! Did the easy-going 
ones in life who grow sad, desponding, dissatis- 
fied, complaining, sick and diseased, but know 
and feel the joy, the content, the heart gladness, 



18 PEN PARABLES 

the blessing of those whose minds and hands are 
ever active in holy toil, what herculean effort 
they would make to break from the fetters of 
their indolence! How they would join hands 
with the toiler that they might also share the 
blessings of heart-comfort, soul-peace, and soul- 
satisfaction ! 

TEACHING THE LOWLY 

To Miss Emma Burrill: 

I KNOW your missionary field is no easy one 
to cultivate ; no light burden is upon your 
physical, upon your spiritual nature; both will 
be severely tried. To toil, day after day, month 
after month, with ignorant, unruly, mischievous, 
stubborn children, in the earnest endeavor to 
teach them to read, if nothing more, is a task 
which those only fitted by the graces of patience 
and self-control and by constant appeals to the 
helping Lord for aid can successfully fulfil. The 
following consideration is, however, a blessed 
stimulus for your encouragement and persever- 
ance in your labors. You, with all the Christian 
teachers of the young of the colored race, are in 
the van of those who are laying the foundation 



JOY IN SERVICE 19 

for uplifting these long down-trodden ones to 
the benefits and blessings of mental culture and 
the exercise of a Christian faith. You are teach- 
ing these poor children to read, making the Holy 
Scriptures your text-book — and you could have 
no better book. And then, as these children go 
forth into life's toils, temptations, trials, you put 
a Bible into their hands, the word you have 
taught them to read. Now I would like to know 
with what better equipment for soul-preservation 
and for doing successful battle against a wicked 
world a young man or woman, or an old man or 
woman, could be sent forth ? And I would like 
to know upon whom will fall a richer heaven- 
blessing than upon those who thus send them 
forth out into life ? Not every one, I know, will 
go forth a conqueror, but suppose only one in five 
or one in ten shall become savingly converted 
and zealously engage in the Master's work, what 
a victory for our Lord! And what a rejoicing 
for those who first sent them forth, having taught 
them to read the word, to sing the praises of 
Jesus ; having by prayer and holy Christian ex- 
ample commended them to the Saviour. 



20 PEN PARABLES 

To Miss Carter: 

AS you went out from your home not knowing, 
like Abraham, whither you were going, yet 
trusting in the Lord, the Lord had a great work 
for you to do ; and this is now apparent in that 
work by the prosperity he has sent you and by 
the joy of soul you have in it. I am sure the 
Lord's good hand is most evident in what he has 
directed you to do ; and your obedience in faith- 
fully doing it is the cause of the resultant 
blessing. 

RESULTS OF SERVICE 

YOU write that you can trace no direct results 
from the use of particular means by you 
which has led to the conversion of souls. I think 
that after that special appeal to poor sinners 
which you made, when three of the worst element 
tarried after the service for religious conversation, 
and two were hopefully converted, and but a 
short time after one led in public prayer, you 
could not fail to recognize direct results from the 
gospel truths which the Lord put into your heart, 
and caused you to utter through your lips. I 
know your spirit revolts from the use of the pro- 
noun /, and all the praise is in the use of the 



JOY IN SERVICE 21 

capital pronoun Thou. Still you were used as 
the instrument of doing the good. And to be 
thus used is an especial favor from the Lord, 
and your comforting evidence of his blessing 
upon your labors. To humbly, thankfully rejoice 
in this, is meet, praiseworthy, and honorable. 

But even suppose you did not see great results 
from your preaching in the ingathering of souls, 
yet are you wonderfully privileged in being per- 
mitted to sow the truth-seeds of the kingdom. 
What more can you faithfully do ? What more 
does the Master ask? In his time, and in no 
other time, will the sown seed come forth. The 
fruitage will be the Lord's for his glory. 

To Rev. I. E. N. Backus, Verona Mills, N. Y. 
Beloved Brother: 

THERE is no need of excuse for your not 
having answered my letters ere this, because 
I am well aware of the "rapid-transit" life, in 
attention to all your duties, you must necessarily 
be called to lead. Let him who thinks that his 
physical toil is exhausting, and who goes often 
with saddened heart to his labor, sighing and 
complaining that his is the hardest lot, the most 



22 PEN PARABLES 

pitiable and burdensome one, let him come for 
a while into the arena of the mind-toiler, and 
he will soon make glad haste to his own work, 
having learned a profitable experience lesson. 

Multitudes think, and think deeply and largely 
— this is one thing ; but to put thought into action, 
into language, to methodize it and commit it to 
writing, is quite another. What mental train- 
ing, what discernment, what judgment, what con- 
centration of thought are all necessary in this ! 
In the legions of thoughts which with electric 
swiftness are continually passing through the 
mind, the soul, what quick action is necessary to 
discern what we want for our subject, to arrest, 
to hold it, to utilize it ! Not such an easy matter 
is it, as many would think, to race in lightning 
speed after a useful, practical thought, to capture 
it, to stamp it in ink, and chain it in bondage to 
paper. The panorama of brain pictures, which 
thought is, is so rapid in movement, that ere by 
the slow process of penning an idea on paper 
one thought is transcribed, it is secured at the ex- 
pense of hundreds which have escaped, and which 
may be quite as good, even if not infinitely 
better. 

But a little while ago a devoted pastor wrote 



JOY IN SERVICE 23 

me that his preparation and effort to preach on 
the Sabbath so exhausted him nervously that on 
Sunday nights he hardly got any sleep. 

Yes ; little indeed do the ignorant know, and 
not knowing, little can they appreciate the efforts, 
the worriment, the nervous strain of the brain- 
worker. 

And so I come into a full appreciation of your 
work ; of the exhaustion it is calculated to produce 
mentally and physically, and of the far more im- 
minent danger of the decadence of the mental 
from overwork than of the physical from hard 
toil. 

I have, in the preceding pages, written mainly 
upon mental toil contrasted with the physical in 
a worldly sense ; but what a wondrous realm opens 
for thought and hand in the contemplation of the 
spiritual-religious. What interesting, glorious, 
soul-expanding, soul-uplifting scenery breaks in 
heavenly beauty, in heavenly illumination, upon 
the privileged, God-blest soul of him before whom 
the Heavenly Father in Christ opens the door of 
his pure, beauteous spirit-realm. 

How insignificant are thought and activity in 
the sphere of the earthly compared with them in 
the sphere of the holy, the heavenly ! 



M PEN PARABLES 

And, taken in this serious consideration, what 
an obligation to the putting forth of unremitting 
toil in the Master's vineyard ! 

Rev. T. Y. Blanks: 

TO hear of or see good resulting from our 
efforts is at once evidence that our labors are 
owned of the Master. And this evidence is not 
only a source of joy, but a holy incentive to con- 
tinuance in well-doing. Working for Jesus is 
the holy path which leads to communion with 
Jesus ; and it is the path of humility, the path of 
peace, of joy, of holy satisfaction, of distin- 
guished blessing. Nothing will so drive out the 
spirit of inertness, of complaining, of fretful un- 
rest from the Christian heart, as a little work for 
Jesus. I have experienced this, but you much 
more, because you have so long, so earnestly, ac- 
tively, and continuously, been about the Master's 
business ; sown so much seed of the kingdom, seen 
so much of its fruitage, and rejoiced so much in 
the reaping. 

I have often met professors who have become 
poor objects, through their Christian inaction. 
They are apt to look upon those Christians who 



JOY IN SERVICE 25 

are warm and active in the holy service as pe- 
culiarly favored of the Lord, while the Lord, as 
they think, has apparently denied them his bless- 
ing and help. You and I have often heard such 
professors deploring the leanness of their Chris- 
tian graces as the result of the withdrawal of the 
Spirit from them ; while the whole cause was in 
themselves — their want of prayer, of activity, of 
consecration, of desire and seeking to do good. 
I remember some two years ago that it seemed to 
me as if my memory was beginning to fail, espe- 
cially in the remembrance of names and of Scrip- 
ture texts. I at once set about committing some 
of the psalms to memory. I began with the first 
psalm. I never was handy at committing to mem- 
ory, but I tugged away at that psalm for weeks. 
At length I got it ; then I began with the nine- 
teenth. Long and fearful was the struggle, but 
at length I had it, too ; then with many others, all 
of which I learned by heart. As I acquired these, 
I was astonished how my memory revived, how 
my soul was cheered, how many otherwise vacant 
hours were filled up in repeating these psalms to 
myself. In my wakeful hours, their repetition is 
for me songs in the night-season. I told a neigh- 
bor Christian of my committing psalms to mem- 



26 PEN PARABLES 

ory, and that he could do so too. He replied, 
4 'Oh, no; I have such a poor memory.'" His 
memory is far better than mine in business ; I 
know he or any Christian could learn many a 
psalm, but the trouble is they do not want to tax 
their patience, their memories, their time. And 
so often for causes of their own they fall into 
barrenness of soul, and try to lay the blame on 
the Lord. ._ 

WHAT a cross it must be to God's minis- 
tering servants, who, educated in the truths 
of God's word, learned in the Scriptures, sound in 
the doctrine, firm in the faith, heart absorbed in 
the work, Jesus' presence a shining light in their 
soul and upon their pathway, to be set upon, 
annoyed, troubled, opposed in their work by some 
poor ignorant parishioner or parishioners, the 
sum of whose theological knowledge, compared 
with their pastor's, is about like the boy's A, B, 
C, compared with the erudition of his wise 
teacher. How many cases of this character have 
come to my knowledge, which I have witnessed 
and which I recall at this moment. 

I think that if the right spirit possessed those 
who professed to have it, and who even thought 



JOY IN SERVICE 27 

that by opposing the humble efforts of God's be- 
loved in well doing they had some grounds for 
their opposition, when they saw the Lord's bless- 
ing resting upon the labors of his servants they 
would have grace and spirit enough and religion 
enough to say, ' ' Beloved of the Lord, we thought 
you were wrong and we were right; but God 
has looked with favor upon your sacrifice, and 
instead of murdering you in the Cain-spirit of 
jealousy, envy, revenge, we join hands with you 
in the good, and heartily exclaim: We are 
henceforth with you, brother. God speed us ! " 

RESULTS 

I OFTEN think of how the holy work of God's 
people, done in heart-love for Him, done with 
a full knowledge of what they are doing and with 
a holy faith in the assurance of its success in the 
Lord's own time ; done at the expense of much 
self-denial, and in the very face of many hin- 
drances and of much opposition — how by the 
Lord's blessing upon it, it comes forth as holy 
fruitage when perhaps least expected; when he 
who went forth to the work has been laid aside 
by mental or physical disability, or by death. 
How such fruitage of such work stands forth as a 



28 PEN PARABLES 

holy monument to the zeal of him who sowed the 
truth-seed! What an incontrovertible evidence 
of the Master's favor and blessing upon the work, 
and of his pleasure in his beloved ! What a re- 
buke to those who, thinking they knew better 
than God or man, did all they could to hinder 
the Lord's servant in his good efforts ! 

WHAT a mighty train of holy influence one 
poor sinner converted by the power of 
the Spirit may set in motion by his feeble effort ! 
a train of good that may run its influence not 
only to the ends of the earth, but continue to 
expand and increase in power for all eternity. 

It is by the enlightening power of the Holy 
Spirit only, that the most ignorant may and do 
become educated in grace. The unlettered and 
humble disciples of our Lord, how learned they 
became in the Scriptures, and how mighty in the 
Spirit! 

WHILE all along the line of the advancing 
hosts of Christ there is the cheering re- 
port of souls continually coming into the Sa- 
viour's fold, so also on every side comes up the cry 



JOY IN SERVICE 29 

for more men to preach and carry the gospel, for 
more means to spread it, for more Bibles, more 
religious literature. Every resource to supply 
the demand is being sought out and perseveringly 
pressed. 

WHAT we want in our land to-day is a 
more deep-rooted soul-piety in God's peo- 
ple, whether pastors or not. We want more holy, 
consecrated lives, and a greater spirit of devotion. 
We want the world to see and to feel that in the 
holy cause of Christ we mean business — up and 
doing, zeal, fire, in the cause of our Redeemer. 

THE CHRISTIANS PRIVILEGE 

WE should never look upon what we do for 
the blessed Saviour and for poor sinners 
from the cold standpoint of duty only, but from 
the high and holy summit of permitted privilege. 
Whatever of good is in our hearts is God's work 
in them, not ours. If in any direction he makes 
us co-workers with himself, to him be all the 
thanks, all the glory ; privileged ones we are. 



so 



PEN PARABLES 



BLESSED Saviour ! how our hearts should go 
out in devoted love to him for the hope he 
gives us in his salvation, for the privilege he 
grants us of honoring him by opening doors of 
usefulness before us, and by always so helping us 
that we shall be equal to the duty he lays upon 
us! 

Here, then, is the Christian's power in doing 
good; if moved by the Spirit of the Lord, the 
Lord is behind the work, and his word shall not 
return unto him void. So then, if by poor me 
and poor thee any good has been done for our 
fellow creatures through our having put in their 
way anything of the Lord's which has led them 
to think, to feel, to cry for mercy and pardon, 
and to obtain that pardon, our poor hearts can- 
not but exclaim : * ' Glory to the Lord, it is all 
his work." The praise is all the Lord's, the joy 
of the good done is ours. 







CONVERSIONS AND 
CONVERTS 




Dear Brother Demarest: 

WOULD not have detained you so 
long waiting for me the day you 
called, only that the dear friend with 
whom I was conversing had been long 
away and I was so rejoiced to see him. A little 
of his history may be interesting to you. He is 
a marked illustration of what the grace of Jesus 
can do when it begins its blessed work in a sin- 
ner's heart. For many years before his. con- 
version this dear brother was among the very 
depraved of earth — vile, blasphemous, and a 
drunkard. He had begun to mend his ways a 
little when he was taken very sick. So low did 
he become that his death was almost momenta- 
rily expected. A Christian brother 1 happening to 



1 The brother was Mr. Neefus. 
31 



32 PEN PARABLES 

pass his house, and knowing that he was very 
sick, called in to see him, and to talk and pray 
with him. It was in the evening the friend 
called, and it was certainly expected that he 
would die before the morning light came in ; and 
he since told me himself that he felt quite certain 
that his end at the time of the call was very near. 
The friend prayed with him and then left. Con- 
trary to all expectation, he began to revive ; and, 
to the astonishment of all who inquired about 
him the next day, it was announced that he was 
better. He told me that while the brother was 
conversing with him about his soul, and especially 
when he prayed with him, he felt that he was 
accepted in Christ, his sins forgiven, and he a new 
creature in Jesus. From that hour to the present, 
some twenty-five years, he has been going through 
earth with his face heavenward. He turned from 
all his evil ways, left the brothel, and began to 
live for Jesus ; united with the Baptist Church in 
our place, and has all along through life since his 
conversion been a faithful, exemplary Christian, 
honored and respected by the whole community. 
He is a man of large information, speaks fluently 
in four different languages, and takes occasion 
through this knowledge to speak to many about 



CONVERSIONS AND CONVERTS 38 

their souls. This dear brother has lived as one 
of my near neighbors ever since his conversion 
until within about a year; so in writing about 
him, I know whereof I affirm. 

We often hear nicely told stories of conversions, 
and sometimes they are so gilded and beautified 
that we are inclined not to take in the whole 
account ; but when we become eye-witnesses for 
twenty-four years to the holy walk and conversa- 
tion, to the Christian zeal and usefulness of one 
converted to Christ, we are not apt to be mistaken 
about the genuineness of his change of heart. 



I OFTEN think, what marked evidences of con- 
version are those who are led by the grace 
of God up and out of the real mire and filth and 
degradation of a low, sinful, vicious life into the 
light and liberty of the blessed Gospel. To see 
such come forth from the giant power of sin into 
the heavenly power of holiness, what evidence is 
it of the truth and mightiness of the Gospel of 
our Lord ; what a strengthening incentive to re- 
doubled effort and energy in the proclaiming of 
this holy truth ! How marked the change, how 
positive the conviction, how assured to self and 



34 PEN PARABLES 

the church and the world, the conversion of such 
sinners ! How very different from those children 
who are born and brought up in a religious at- 
mosphere, and who glide smoothly, almost im- 
perceptibly into the church, to her communion 
and the companionship of the good. As a godly 
man once said in this connection, when asked 
about his conversion: "There never was a time 
that I can remember, from my earliest days, when 
I was not a Christian. I have no special evi- 
dences of my first conversion to point to. ' ' Now, 
while such may be the best of men and women at 
heart, they not unfrequently glide along when in 
the church on the same runners upon which they 
glided in ; not very demonstrative, not very en- 
ergetic, not very pronounced in faith and works. 

But when, from the midnight of sin, from the 
abominations of the life of vice and moral cor- 
ruption, a poor soul is raised up to newness of 
life in Christ, and is thus led to see and to feel 
what a change has been wrought in him, how 
pronounced he is in his gratitude and praise to 
Jesus for his great deliverance ! How zealous for 
the Master's cause ! How eager for the wresting 
of others from the same pit whence he was digged ! 

I have known many such cases. One, a gam- 



CONVERSIONS AND CONVERTS 35 

bier and very profane. The Lord arrested him 
in his sin, and made him a subject of his saving 
grace. Such a zealous convert I never knew. No 
effort for the good of saint or sinner, no self- 
denial was too great for him. After a time he 
was largely instrumental in erecting a church not 
far from his residence, and often preached in it 
himself. His exhortations were powerful, and 
productive of wonderful good. I knew him to 
take a young man, whom he had led from the 
intoxicating cup and from the gambling table, 
to accept Christ, and keep that man on his own 
premises for I think nearly three years that he 
might watch over him and aid him to persevere 
in the faith. 

I knew the young man also ; from death in the 
lowest sinks of sin, he came up to newness of life 
in Christ. After he left my friend, his whole 
soul was fired with the most earnest zeal for re- 
claiming sinners, especially from drink. 

He said in my hearing after his conversion : 
' ' In all my wild career of sin and folly, I never 
rejected the Bible, but often read it, thinking by 
doing so to make some amends for my life of in- 
iquity ; nor did I ever forget that I had a praying 
mother." The seed of holy truth had taken 



36 PEN PARABLES 

lodgment somewhere and somehow in his soul, 
and in due time it came forth in one of the most 
glorious conversions I ever witnessed in my life. 
This man turned at once away from his evil life 
and began the service of the Lord. This was 
several years ago. The last time I saw him was in 
the Fulton Street prayer-meeting with a young 
man whom he had induced to enter with him to be 
prayed for by God's people. After the meeting, 
he told me that he was engaged as a missionary 
under the auspices of the John Street Church; 
that out of some forty young men he had been 
the means of leading astray, he had succeeded in 
rescuing about thirteen of them, and that he was 
going for all the rest. 

ANOTHER young man, now living in our 
village, while some years ago engaged in 
the liquor business, was converted. A few days 
after, he turned all his liquors into the gutter. 
He soon became very zealous in the Lord's work, 
and has continued so to this day. How marked 
the zeal and success of Paul for Christ after his 
wonderful conversion ! 



CONVERSIONS AND CONVERTS 37 

My Dear Christian Brother: 

NOT a day, scarcely an hour has passed since 
we were at Dr. Talmage's Tabernacle, but I 
have thought of and tried to pray for you. You 
do not know how it rejoiced my heart, and the 
hearts of many all about you, to see you rise for 
prayer ; and then to see you go forward to meet 
God's people for holy advice and conversation. 
Oh, what a blessing came upon your soul direct 
from the dear Saviour ; a blessing which he did 
not send upon multitudes of impenitent ones who 
were scattered all through that audience ; and who, 
after listening to such a sermon as Dr. Menhall 
preached, still remained hard of heart, and un- 
moved ; and to this moment are yet unconcerned 
about their souls' salvation. 

I can tell you that nothing will give so much 
peace and joy to the soul; nothing will so help 
one on through life as a life of holy communion 
with Jesus, a life of holy devotion to him, and an 
outspoken, holy allegiance to him in the face of 
friend or foe. 



38 PEN PARABLES 

THE SEED AND THE FRUIT 

BUT recently I received a most blessed letter 
from an old sailor and sea-captain, giving 
me an account of his conversion. Some three 
years ago, hearing of the hardness and wickedness 
of this man, I wrote him a letter, asking in it the 
question: "Would you think of going to sea 
without a compass, a chart, to guide you ? You 
know if you went thus you would never come to 
the haven you started for. And whom but your- 
self could you blame for your wreckage ? You 
are now out upon the wide, dark, boisterous sea 
of life, and already have wandered hither and 
thither for many years, never having taken the 
chart, the compass of God's dear word to guide 
you to the haven of glory ; and what must be the 
result of such neglect, such despising of the holy 
means in the heart-use of which you may be wafted 
safely to the heaven shore, except the sad wreckage 
of your soul for all eternity ? And whom for such 
untold loss could you blame but yourself?" 

His letter to me is expressive of a genuine work 
of grace in his penitent heart. How he magnifies 
that mercy of God which bore with him through 
all his wandering, and at length brought him to 



CONVERSIONS AND CONVERTS 39 

himself ! How feelingly he writes of the work of 
the Spirit in his soul, of his joy and peace through 
faith in Christ ! ' ' I have at last, ' ' says he, ' ' taken 
your good advice ; I have lifted my sails to the 
heaven-breezes, and Jesus is at my heart's helm 
to guide me to the shores of glory. ' ' The sown 
seed of God's truth had dropped into that hard 
heart. It was there lying apparently dead for 
three years, but at length took root and came 
forth in that soul's conversion, and is now bearing 
precious fruit. ^_ 

ONE night I was led by a particular Provi- 
dence to take a road on my way home which 
I seldom traveled. There I passed a house in 
which I saw a light dimly burning. Knowing 
that the father of a large family was lying there 
very sick, I was led to enter the house. The poor 
man was in the last stage of consumption. I 
conversed with him about his soul, and prayed 
with him. He had been a very wicked man, but 
then and there he, too, felt the converting power 
of the Spirit, and was led to cry to Jesus for par- 
don. His whole soul rejoiced in the Lord. He 
said to me, "I am just about to depart. All my 
trust is in Christ. He is most precious to me. I 



40 PEN PARABLES 

am waiting his will — I put my soul in his hand. 
I know he will save me. ' ' A few hours after this 
he left the suffering body for the company of the 
redeemed. ^ 

WITH all that has been written about the 
nature and simplicity of conversion, and 
the great readiness with which it may be experi- 
enced, there is notwithstanding a wondrous depth 
of power and meaning in it. That cannot be 
merely a light matter concerning the occurrence 
of which in a poor soul, " there is joy among the 
angels of God in heaven ! ' ' That cannot be merely 
a light matter, in the occurrence of which an im- 
mortal soul is turned from a downward course 
toward eternal perdition to an upward course to 
eternal glory — that no light occurrence in which 
a soul is rescued from its confinement in the dun- 
geons of sin, and made a ' ' freed one in Christ. ' ' 

Dear Mrs. Jarvis: 

I AM cheered to learn that your meetings have 
not been held in vain, but have thus far 
resulted in the conversion of seven precious souls. 
Oh, what a blessed harvest ! What a victory for 



CONVERSIONS AND CONVERTS 41 

our dear Jesus! What a help for his cause! 
Seven turned from darkness to light, from evil to 
good, from sin to holiness ; seven more examples 
to the world that there is reality, power, blessed- 
ness in the religion of Jesus. Seven wrested from 
the power of Satan, and housed safely in the fold 
of Christ ; seven turned from working for Satan, 
to work for the Heavenly Master. 

The religion of Jesus is like the miraculous 
multiplication of the loaves and fishes ; all who 
come may eat and be filled, and abundance left for 
all who may yet come after. Who shall tell what 
work these young converts may do for Christ? 
They start out in the vigor of youth, a long life 
of usefulness before them. Oh, what, by a con- 
secrated life to Jesus, may they not do ? They 
have relatives, friends, and neighbors all about 
them who are yet in the service of a wicked world. 
Can they see these friends going on in enmity to 
the dear Lord without exhorting them to turn to 
Jesus ? Can they cease praying for them ? These 
young people have entered the Master's vineyard ; 
and there laboring for his glory they will receive 
a double reward — a present blessing directly fol- 
lowing their every labor for Jesus, and in the 
end Heaven, happiness, eternal peace. 



42 PEN PARABLES 

CARE OF YOUNG CONVERTS 

I RECEIVE many letters from my correspond- 
ents giving accounts of the conversions of 
precious souls. Of this it is cheering to hear ; 
but, from what I have often witnessed myself, it 
seems to be the aim more to make converts than 
to care for them after they are converted. This 
error is not an uncommon one among pastors and 
church members who put forth great zeal often, 
and praiseworthy zeal, to bring poor sinners into 
the fold, and then neglect to instruct, to caution, 
to guard, to pray with and for them. I know 
of churches to-day to whose membership some 
are admitted at almost every communion, and it 
is blessed to see them brought in ; but after they 
come in little interest is taken in them; and I'll 
wager that the pastors of these churches do not 
know one-third of their church members when 
they meet them, and one-half of the church mem- 
bers in these churches do not know the other half. 
Now the consequence of all this is that spiritual- 
ity is at a low ebb and worldliness at pretty high 
tide. 

Those who come into the church expect the 
warm grasp of holy affection ; and not only this, 



CONVERSIONS AND CONVERTS 43 

but the continuation of it, for they feel the need 
of help in their Christian way. Now if instead 
of this they fail often of being recognized by 
pastor or brethren, I know of nothing that will 
give them such a setback in their Christian love 
and zeal and Christian joy. This with the true 
convert, I know ought not to be. In the midst 
of all opposition, he should be enabled joyfully 
to exclaim: "None of these things move me." 
6 ' I have food to eat that ye know not of. ' ' Never- 
theless, in the face of all this, the want of cordial 
brotherly love and interest will have and does 
have its chilling effect. 



I HOPE the dear young disciples who have so 
lately started among you in the divine life 
and on the road to glory, are going on their way 
rejoicing in the Lord — working earnestly in the 
Master's vineyard, scattering the heavenly seed 
in every direction. I hope and pray that they 
are all living holy, devoted lives ; lives that are 
examples to the world of what the religion of Jesus 
can do for a poor sinner ; lives that stir up older 
Christians to greater zeal than ever in the Master's 
service. I hope they are all praying Christians, 



44 PEN PARABLES 

living ever in the holy atmosphere of prayer. So 
will they grow in grace ; so be the means of doing 
great good in the Lord's service, in bringing 
others to follow Jesus. 



WHAT an army for the Lord has been re- 
cruited from the ranks of the world to go 
forth and fight the battles for our divine Saviour ! 
What cannot one hundred and thirty-nine con- 
verts do for the glory of the Master ? Many of 
these young souls are very weak, and very igno- 
rant in holy things ; they need strength and in- 
struction ; and who shall aid them in this but the 
older disciples, leading them and teaching them 
to look to the Saviour ; instructing them how to 
pray, how to live, how to work. 

AND let these young soldiers of the cross also 
know that this great enemy is very cun- 
ning. If they at any time leave a single point of 
their Christian lives unguarded, he will be there 
ready to take possession. There are so many 
ways in which professing Christians can give 
Satan a chance to get hold of them — neglect of 
prayer, neglect of reading the Bible, neglect 



CONVERSIONS AND CONVERTS 45 

of the church services, neglect of being found 
among God's people, neglect of Christian con- 
duct, neglect of their conversation. Any pro- 
fessor who engages in evil conversation at once 
lets Satan into his heart ; and when the Lord is 
out, it is often a very hard matter to get the devil 
out and the Lord back again. And so I hope 
this grand army enlisted for Jesus, will every one 
stand up boldly, nobly, perseveringly, to do battle 
for him, and never give the devil opportunity to 
lead them to in any way dishonor their Lord. 



WHILE the young converts you speak of 
have given you a holy joy, in that the 
Lord has blest your labors in the Sabbath 
School, there also comes with this joy a large 
burden of anxious, superintending, fatherly care 
in watching over these lambs. They are unwary, 
unsuspecting ; and they must be carefully watched, 
and lovingly, faithfully warned of their danger. 
And to effectually do this, will be to pray often 
for them and with them. While in prayer, we 
are in a holy fortress of defense whose walls Satan 
cannot scale. 



46 



PEN PARABLES 



HOW carefully should the older membership 
look after the new converts, especially the 
young ! Even though Satan may know that he 
cannot again get them back into his evil fold, 
yet he will neglect no opportunity to tempt, to 
trouble, to perplex, to annoy them. 

Watch then, pray with, tenderly lead the 
young; give them the benefit, the blessing of 
your experience; so, with Christ's help, shall 
they be kept. 






ORGANIZING 
THE NEW CHURCH 

SUPPOSE you are now right in the 
clerical harness — collar, names, and 
traces all on, and tugging hard at 
drawing the gospel chariot safely 
and successfully along with all your dear people 
in it ; so I know you have enough to do without 
writing letters. If I mistake not, I have heard 
that your church edifice is all finished, and you 
are worshiping in it. I suppose you have not 
such a large congregation at the start, but by 
your efforts you will soon increase it. Anyway, 
I do not believe in mammoth churches and mam- 
moth congregations and mammoth ministers; 
pretty apt to be large spiritual leakages some- 
where ; hard to keep the oversight of such flocks ; 
hard to preach to them. The trouble is, vital 
godliness and deep practical piety are generally at 
a large discount. If a minister cannot come 
47 



48 PEN PARABLES 

quite often into intimate spiritual communion 
and companionship with his congregation, and 
especially with his church members, his church 
will not be spiritually very prosperous. This 
opportunity you have ; and I believe the good you 
will do by being enabled to keep a full oversight 
over all your people will far outstrip the mam- 
moth of which I have written. It was the boast 
of one of the best ministers I ever knew, in a con- 
gregation near us, that there was not a single 
member of or in his congregation to whom he had 
not spoken on the subject of religion. May the 
Saviour bless you, and prosper you in your good 
work. 

IN these days there is often too great an aim at 
making a numerical display of membership. 
This, as we well know, is not a church's real 
power; its power and efficiency lies in the vital 
godliness of its members, be they many or few. 



I AM greatly obliged to you for writing to me 
about Brother Berkeley and his church. I 
know those people must have quite a struggle to 
keep the good work going, because they are poor, 



ORGANIZING THE NEW CHURCH 49 

and labor is not abundant. Still, their efforts to 
get a house of worship will cause them to appre- 
ciate it all the more. 

I am glad that you have been so prosperous in 
raising funds for the new church. I think your 
plan is a good one — to start the building and 
continue progress as you are able, and finish in 
about three years, when the old church will be 
about worn out. This plan is prudent and eco- 
nomical, and you will succeed. If you have not 
a good pulpit Bible, when you are ready to enter 
the new church, I will, the Lord willing, send you 

To Rev. Reuben Berkeley: 

IN your last letter you gave me an encouraging 
report of the progress you were making in 
building up your church edifices at Ware Neck, 
and the Morning Glory Church. I have often 
thought of you in your labors and in the struggle 
you and your people are making for the comple- 
tion of your churches, and for the maintenance of 
the dear gospel among you. While there may 
be much to dishearten, there is still more to en- 
courage. You, and those in the two churches 
who profess Christ, have the Lord on your side. 



50 PEN PARABLES 

* * Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in 
the world." 



IT shows a deep interest in your people in the 
Lord's service, to subscribe so largely for a 
new church. If the old building is in condition 
fit for repairing, and does not need enlarging, it 
might be well to thoroughly repair the old house, 
and make it go yet for some years till a more 
favorable opportunity comes for erecting a new 
house of worship. 

IF you can organize a church in connection with 
the Sunday School with the number of mem- 
bers you mention, namely, fifty-six, it seems to 
me you would have a large force to start with. 
Many friends of mine in the West have started a 
church with only ten or twelve members. The 
advantages of your mission would be that those 
who were far distant from the parent church 
would have larger and more frequent opportuni- 
ties of hearing the gospel; the children would 
become more regular and frequent in their at- 
tendance upon the Sabbath School, and I believe 
a new interest would be developed in that district 



ORGANIZING THE NEW CHURCH 51 

by an increased zeal on the part of those who 
would constitute the new organization. Then 
your own soul would be wonderfully quickened 
and blest as their pastor. With this new zeal 
and holy enthusiasm for the glory of God, I pray 
that the people of your charge may begin their 
new church life. And if thus they begin, they 
need not fear but that the Lord will do his part. 

I AM much cheered to learn from you that the 
church organization, long desired and prayed 
for by many of the brethren, has at last been 
consummated, and that you have made a start in 
holy things ; and a good start it is, if I rightly 
understand you, with thirty-two members and 
ten or twelve more soon to follow, and you 
granted the glorious privilege of preaching to 
them. May the dear Master be always at your 
side — your Counselor, your Strength, your Light, 
your Joy, your Encouragement, your Defense, 
your Companion. 

I HAVE heard from Isaiah Miles, whom I saw 
a short time ago, that the building had been 
erected, and I suppose by this time you are wor- 



52 PEN PARABLES 

shiping m it. I congratulate you heartily for 
the progress you have made in your good work. 
I have often read of the difficulty in many places 
of organizing churches and Sabbath Schools, and 
those starting the matter thought themselves 
greatly favored if they could gather ten or fifteen 
scholars in the Sabbath School, and eight or nine 
church members in the new church; and often 
thus organizing, had to struggle on for two or 
three years before they could erect a house of 
worship. How the dear Master has poured out 
his Spirit upon you in the very beginning of your 
work ! With forty church workers to hold up 
your hands, to encourage you in your good work, 
surely you are greatly favored. As you preach 
the word from time to time and see perhaps from 
thirty to thirty-five of these members before you, 
living witnesses of the truth you preach, how 
must this sight, this thought, fill your soul 
with joy, move your lips to praise, and divinely 
strengthen you to utter the words of life ! How 
in the face of such a number of God's people are 
you strengthened to appeal to the impenitent, to 
urge them to flee from the wrath to come to that 
Saviour whom all these have found most precious 
to their souls ! 




JOINING THE CHURCH 




UT whence comes this cold-hearted 
professionalism which, by its care- 
less example and irreverence of Sab- 
bath observance, results in so much 
trouble in the church, and so much injury to souls 
outside ? It is the result of not guarding well 
the holy gate against those entering who have not 
been really renewed by the sanctifying, regener- 
ating power of the Holy Spirit. I have seen per- 
sons admitted to the communion of our church 
who gave no evidence of a change of heart— and 
if I could have had my way they never would 
have been admitted without very much stronger 
and more certain evidences. After admission I 
have carefully observed their walk and conver- 
sation. In many instances it amounted to just 
what I have said of the careless and irreverent. 
I remember being present at the examination of 
a prominent person in our community when he 
53 



54 PEN PARABLES 

came before the consistory and asked for admis- 
sion to the communion. He gave no evidence of 
a change of heart ; yet as a man of influence, and 
one who had always been a strict church-goer, 
he could hardly be refused admission. He was 
accepted. I carefully watched him ; his life was 
a positive injury to the cause; again and again 
he led young men into sin, and was often found 
in the paths of iniquity himself ; and to the day 
of his death he never to me showed any change 
in his life. Often to this day are his inconsist- 
encies as a professor of religion spoken of by the 
world, and gloried in by the world, as an argu- 
ment for it against the truthfulness and reality 
of religion. 

Shortly after the admission of this last person, 
another prominent young man in the community 
came before the elders for admission. He came 
humbly, penitently, in tears ; in fear and trem- 
bling ; he had been a great sinner, but the evi- 
dence of his penitence could not be doubted ; it 
was a genuine work of the Spirit. He was received. 
From that hour his whole life, walk, and conver- 
sation were changed, as different as the day from 
the night. His zeal for the Saviour put to the 
blush the Christian life of many an old professor. 



JOINING THE CHURCH 55 

In that zeal he continued to the day of his death. 
Ah, it is the careful guarding of the portals of 
the church, which is to tell for her growth, her 
holiness, her prosperity ; and which is to tell upon 
the world in exhibiting the truthfulness of our 
blessed religion. 



A GREAT evil with which our Dutch Church 
has here occasionally had to contend is 
the application of parents of young persons, to 
have them admitted to the holy communion on or 
about Easter. The applications have in almost 
every instance been made by those of foreign 
birth, and in accordance with erroneous notions 
that at about the age of say fifteen or twenty 
such persons ought to partake of the holy com- 
munion. The great vital question of the absolute 
need of a change of heart, of penitence for sin 
and living faith in Christ which our Church 
holds as the all-needful essentials for admittance 
to her communion, are seemingly ignored. A 
practical, forcible, and very sad illustration of 
the evil which may run in this direction is the 
following: I said to a mother but a short time 
ago : "So your daughter has been confirmed, and 



56 



PEN PARABLES 



partaken of the holy communion ?" "Yes, and 
now," said she, "I have no more responsibility 
about her spiritual welfare. She must now act 
and do for herself. If she goes to ruin, it is not 
my fault." 



I HOPE you will unite, by a confession of 
faith in Christ, with some evangelical 
church. In so doing, you will take a more de- 
cided stand for the dear Saviour ; the sphere of 
your influence will become more enlarged ; com- 
munion with God's people will tend to strengthen 
your faith ; the communion of the Lord's Supper 
will tend to bring you into more sweet, close, and 
soul-comforting intimacy with the dear Redeemer. 
May the dear Saviour take thee gently by the 
hand and lead thee humbly to confess him before 
the world. 





CHURCH MEMBERSHIP 




HOPE the fervent piety, the devoted 
Christian zeal, the godly walk of 
your membership, may become so 
apparent, so pronounced for Jesus, 
that many of the larger congregations about you 
shall be put to the blush, when compared with 
yours, for their want of holy devotion and pious 
example. 

I just now remember reading of a minister who 
was called to the pastorate of a church with a 
large nominal membership, but which was very 
dead spiritually. Several pastors had tried to 
run the affair, but failed because of the little life 
in it. This last pastor was told that he would 
also fail. He said he would fix the whole matter 
very soon. Shortly after his installation he di- 
rected that a meeting should be called and a roll 
of the membership of the church be prepared for 
him. At the meeting he took the roll, tore it in 
57 



58 



PEN PARABLES 



pieces, and said : ' ' Now we will start anew, and 
all who will be considered members of this church 
must unite with us on a reconfession of their faith, 
after a proper examination of each. ' ' This course 
had the desired effect. Many who had been on 
the membership list never put in an appearance ; 
many who did, were swamped for want of satis- 
factory evidence of true conversion. In this way 
a great weeding of the tares took place, and the 
church went on prosperously. And so the little 
live spiritual church is far better than the great 
big spiritually dead one. 






THE CONDUCT OF 
CHRISTIANS 

JO be a true, live Christian means to 
be active, prayerful, on the watch 
for others' good; to so live before 
all as that they shall say: "There 
goes a Christian/ ' These are the happy, the 
cheerful, the useful, the contented Christians. 
Those who live very near to the Saviour are not 
those who are ever going about with sad faces and 
complaining, fault-finding tongues; not those 
who are sour-tempered and fretful, and always 
uneasy and ready for strife, but those who make 
the Saviour their most intimate and loving com- 
panion. They have a hidden joy which cannot 
but speak in their looks, their words, their acts. 
None need want for this joy if they will carefully 
seek it. None who believe in Christ need stay 
long out of the sunshine of his presence, away 
from the gracious sweetness of his smile. 
59 



60 PEN PARABLES 

I DO not believe in every man's Christianity, 
for there are many who by their words and 
deeds so deny what they profess that they would 
wreck any man's faith, blight his hope, chill his 
love, and kill his Christian zeal, were he to look 
to and be guided by their example. But such 
men are not the true exponents of genuine Chris- 
tianity ; no more so than a quack doctor is the 
true exponent of the science of medicine, or a 
quack lawyer the true exponent of the dignity 
and science of law, or the persons who traffic 
through unlawful dealings exponents of the dig- 
nity and honor, the integrity of mercantile trade. 
With regard to Christianity especially, I think 
there is very much perverted, unjust and unrea- 
sonable judgment set up against it. Instead of 
taking the word of God as the basis and authority 
for testing and passing judgment upon Chris- 
tians, and by this line of judgment throwing 
out and overboard the vile hypocrite, and leaving 
the holy Word intact in its heavenly authority, the 
general course is to set up the poor hypocritical 
professor as the basis for the condemnation and 
rejection of the living, glorious, eternal truths of 
Christianity. Yet how narrow and biassed is 
such a course ! Men do not think of pursuing this 



THE CONDUCT OF CHRISTIANS 61 

latter course of judgment in the case of the 
pseudo lawyer or doctor. 

Among the splendid seed-potatoes you sent me 
lately — they are as fine as any I have ever pur- 
chased — I occasionally find a decayed or very de- 
fective one. I judge the poor ones by the good 
ones, and would not think of throwing away the 
good ones, or condemning the good because of 
the false and decayed ; the good are the sample, 
not the false. 



AS I look back to my early days and think 
of the stalwart men and women who then 
composed the "household of faith" in our village, 
whose whole Christian life in thought, word, and 
deed ever illustrated the beauty, the power, the 
reality of the religion of him whom they loved 
and served, and who were so scrupulously careful 
to avoid even the appearance of evil, lest the cause 
of their dear Lord should suffer reproach through 
them — when I compare those Christians with these 
of to-day, there does seem a marked difference 
between the two. Then Christian example was 
carefully watched by the church, and Christians 
prayerfully watched themselves. To-day, the 



62 PEN PARABLES 

church has relaxed much of her spiritual vigil- 
ance over the character and life of her children. 



TO be a Christian means to be awake in Christ ; 
to stand for life on picket duty for our- 
selves and for others. It means to take warning 
ourselves of the enemy's approach, and to warn 
others, just as you are doing in teaching the 
young about duty, God and heaven. 

WE find the most energetic Christians the 
most lively in their faith, the most con- 
fident in hope, the most joyous in spirit, and so 
most blest of the Father. As you well express it 
in your letter, you found that want of use had 
been more destructive of your goods and premises 
than use would have been. So may we say of the 
Christian life: Christian work keeps in bright 
polish all the Christian armor, every Christian 
grace. Without this work — rust ; and no rust is 
so destructive in its tendency, so hard to remove, 
as that which for want of holy use settles upon 
the Christian graces. 



THE CONDUCT OF CHRISTIANS 63 

HOW often on our pilgrimage we meet with 
brother Christians whom we love as Chris- 
tians, and esteem as such, but whose action, man- 
ner, conversation, and whole natural make-up is 
so uncongenial to us that we can think a great 
deal more and better of them in their absence 
than in their presence. I remember how not long 
since a good man visited me for a few days. He 
was a full-grown pessimist. Everything was out 
of joint, and everybody. Clouds and darkness 
were about him, nothing could he see in a soul- 
cheering, heaven-beauteous light. My Christian 
brother quite unnerved me ; and when he bade me 
good-by I felt relieved. He is a good man, one 
deeply versed in the Scriptures, very particular 
about his Christian walk, very polite, and exceed- 
ingly afraid of making himself troublesome ; but 
his fault-finding spirit was a sad blight upon 
his Christian influence. 



I REMEMBER reading in one of the daily 
papers at the time, how that as Mr. Beecher 
made his appearance in a place where a large 
assemblage had gathered to participate in a very 
worldly amusement and he came in to enjoy the 



64 PEN PARABLES 

sport with them, the whole assembly arose and 
greeted him with cheer upon cheer. He was elated 
with their enthusiasm, but it was not an enthu- 
siasm resulting from a deep regard for him as a 
minister of the gospel of Christ, and because of 
their regard for that gospel, but it was a demon- 
stration of their heart- joy that one so prominent 
as a preacher would and did condescend to lower 
himself to sit with them in worldly places. It 
was a huzza of triumph that one of the foremost 
representatives of the gospel had stepped down 
from his high position to fellowship with the 
world, and identify himself thereby with it in 
its worldly pleasures. 



ARE the Saviour's beloved allied to him in 
the possession of his Spirit? Then are 
they allied to each other as one ; if not, then is 
Christ divided. But as Christ cannot be divided, 
it is certain that when those who profess him are 
divided, the wrong spirit is in them. Not that 
God's own always so act toward each other as 
to never give offense in word or deed; but the 
true child of God, when tempted and tried, op- 
posed, offended, wounded by a brother — even 



THE CONDUCT OF CHRISTIANS 65 

though at the time he may manifest his offense, 
or his wounded spirit by a temporary show of 
resentment, yet in a little time he will be led, 
Peter-like, to turn from his sin, to weep bitterly, 
and agonize in imploring petition for pardon 
from his offended Lord. This spirit is the prac- 
tical illustration of the truth, the reality of the 
religion of our Lord — a proof which is an unan- 
swerable argument to the truth in the face of the 
unbelieving world. 



OH, how noble it is to see a Christian walk 
boldly for his Master before the world, 
no matter whether the world derides or mocks or 
insults him ! 

THE best men in the world to-day are the 
men of Christian character — honest, upright 
men, upon whom people can depend, whom they 
can trust with their money and their interests, and 
feel that all is safe. A rogue generally runs but 
a short course and then is done — bones all picked 
and a good feast made for the buzzard. 

So I trust you will always stand very firm on 
your honor and self-respect ; never go anywhere, 



66 PEN PARABLES 

or do anything that would throw a cloud over 
your good name. 

THE BEAUTY OF A CHRISTIAN 
CHARACTER 

Dear Brother John: 

IT is now some time since I bade you farewell, 
when we met at the funeral services of our 
beloved Mr. Prince. You do not know how sad 
I feel at his departure from us. He was always 
a dear Christian friend upon whom I could with 
certainty and safety rely — always kind, affection- 
ate, loving, true. His heart was ever full of 
tender Christian sympathy, and he seemed to 
know no malice, no envy, no hatred to any. His 
was a kind, forgiving spirit. Did any one offend 
him, his forgiveness was ever ready at the of- 
fender's first asking of his pardon. I believe it 
was by prayer and by patterning after the exam- 
ple of the dear Redeemer, by never harboring ill 
will, that he continually educated himself up to 
this noble standard of Christian living and act- 
ing ; and this was the secret, I believe, of his ever 
happy smile, of his cheerful spirit, and of his 
happy life. None who came in Christian contact 



THE CONDUCT OF CHRISTIANS 67 

with him but felt the better, the more cheerful 
and happy for having enjoyed his companion- 
ship. Our dear brother, I know, was often severely 
tried ; his zeal for Christ often made him foes ; his 
love was often requited with hatred ; his liberality 
with ingratitude, his kind words with rebuff; 
his outstretched hand of love was often coldly 
grasped by those who would not, could they 
have helped it, have taken that hand at all. But 
yet, amid all opposition, he was unmoved. He so 
educated his spirit to overlook the opposition of 
the world, and the opposition of many of his 
Christian brethren to him, that their hostility fell 
powerless against him, and so returned in shame 
upon their own heads. He was called to pass 
through many afflictions, but his sorrow was ever 
lost in the bright cheer of his Christian faith and 
holy trust in the will of the dear Master. As a 
worker in the Sabbath School, no expression of 
mine could even give an approximation of his 
inestimable worth. His words of advice to the 
dear children, ever urging them to first of all 
seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, 
were seed-sowings of divine truth which shall 
continue to spring up and bear holy fruitage for 
many a year to come. His gifted voice in holy 



68 



PEN PARABLES 



song will never cease sounding in our church, in 
the Sabbath School, in the ears and upon the 
souls of all who ever heard him. But he has 
gone to the Fatherland of rest, of song, of eternal 
rapture. And so our beloved pass away, and we 
in turn shall very shortly follow them. The 
shining light of their Christian life is left for our 
help and guidance through this dark world, for 
our cheer, our encouragement, our incentive to 
all good works. 






THE PRAYER-MEETING 

H, what heaven benefits come to a com- 
munity in the establishment and 
maintenance of a weekly prayer- 
meeting in its midst! They may 
be summed up as follows: First, the Lord's 
especial presence there ; second, the protection of 
such presence for ail ; third, restraint upon evil, 
upon sin; fourth, Christian growth in grace, 
through attendance upon the means of grace; 
fifth, the holy altar where the tried and afflicted 
may make known their case to and implore bless- 
ings from the Lord ; sixth, the place where the 
awakened soul may himself plead and ask others 
to plead for him, for mercy and pardon ; seventh, 
a standing, open invitation to the impenitent to 
come where the Lord waits ready to receive and 
bless; eighth, the joy-home for God's children — 
a blessed stepping-stone for their advancement in 
69 



70 



PEN PARABLES 



holiness on their pilgrimage to the glory-land of 
heaven. 

IN your letter you mention a prayer-meeting 
held at your house, and that some had come 
seven miles to attend it with the thermometer from 
21° to 38° below zero. Blest with such church 
members as these, I know your church must be on 
the road to spiritual life and prosperity. 





INCONSISTENT 
CHURCH MEMBERS 




Barnes : 

HIGHLY appreciate the most ex- 
cellent transcription you sent me 
entitled "The sorrows of Rev. Ab- 
origines Hiawatha," by Rev. D. 
Magregor. What a true picture is it of much 
that we hear of and witness at the present day in 
the wide and wild digression of multitudes who, 
professing Christ, would rather, as it were, rule 
Christ than be ruled by him. These modernists 
in religion look upon the old beaten tracks, or 
the "cast up highway upon which the redeemed 
of the Lord are to walk," as something too old 
and worn out to be followed in this "rapid- 
transit" age. Too much solemnity they say — 
too much devotion, too much self-denial, too much 
humility which savors of weakness, too much of 
71 



72 PEN PARABLES 

the softness of love and of the obeisance of gen- 
tleness and tenderness ; too strict regard for that 
careful walk in the Lord's ordinances which puts 
a veto upon religious liberalism ; which makes 
the religion of Jesus a regimen of severity hardly 
to be tolerated except by those who would have 
their lives hid with Christ in God. Modern 
thought, modern changes require, say they, the 
modernizing of religion — as if religion had to 
accommodate itself to them rather than they to ac- 
commodate themselves to it. To what extent these 
spurious ideas of Christianity can and will lead 
such blind enthusiasts, a blessed illustration is 
given in this little Hiawatha paraphrase. Modern 
criticism of true gospel preaching is the sure con- 
demnation of the latter, as the latter is the sure 
condemnation of the former. So they cannot 
agree. Brain rather than heart, pride rather than 
humility, self rather than Jesus, to rule rather 
than be ruled, stoical indifference rather than 
tender tearfulness — "go as you please" rather 
than so to walk as that others shall "take knowl- 
edge of them that they have been with Jesus and 
learned of him"; sarcastic irony against the 
devout believer in Jesus, rather than joining in 
holy walk with him to the glory land. 



INCONSISTENT CHURCH MEMBERS 73 

HOW often I speak to the impenitent only to 
hear them excuse themselves from attend- 
ing to their souls' eternal interests on the ground 
of the careless, inconsistent lives of professors ! I 
try to convince them that such excuses will never 
avail to save their souls ; that they should not 
judge of the religion of Jesus by false or incon- 
sistent professors ; but, on the contrary, should 
study the word of life ; and on the basis of its 
holy teachings, judge men and themselves. Yet 
I know that when they condemn church members 
they are right, and it pierces my heart with deep 
sorrow to know that those who profess to follow 
our dear, glorious, sympathetic, kind Redeemer 
should by their careless walk give such large and 
true occasion for the world to malign and ill- 
judge the religion of Jesus. I write the follow- 
ing with a stricken, aching heart ; and I want you, 
my brother, to publicly proclaim it when you 
have the opportunity, for the reproof of any, 
should such be among you. I know professing 
Christians who would not hesitate to tell a false- 
hood — who would not hesitate to steal — who 
would not and do not hesitate to resort to the 
most unlawful means of making money. I know 
professors who are Sabbath-breakers — Sunday 



74 PEN PARABLES 

novel-readers — frequenters of the race-course — 
lottery-ticket buyers — theater-goers. Alas ! alas ! 
I cannot call these the true children of my Heav- 
enly Father ! ^ 

TO have patience with poor impenitent, igno- 
rant souls in their guilt, despite all their 
hostility to us, to the Saviour, is one thing; 
to have patience with religious trouble-makers, 
cranks, bosses, is quite another thing. The former 
are blind ; we would lead them by the hand to the 
"wells of salvation" ; the latter profess to see, but 
they need hot shot poured into them from the 
weapons of those strong in the faith and mighty 
in the Scriptures, something like the following: 

A dear Christian brother in our place, a man 
full of the Spirit and bold in the Spirit, yet meek 
and tender as a little child, was appointed in one 
of our village churches to collect the pew-rents. 
As he approached one man for rent (the man 
was not a Christian) he said to the collector, using 
a little unmentionable language: "Not a cent do 
I pay." 

"Your name is on the list," said the collector. 

' fc It makes no difference, I pay nothing ; and 
I'll tell you why. One of your prominent church 



INCONSISTENT CHURCH MEMBERS 75 

men came to me to have his wagon repaired ; said 
he would pay as soon as the work was done. I 
left other work to accommodate him. I finished 
the work — did it cheaply for him — sent his wagon 
home. He never came to pay me. I have seen 
him several times. He has repeatedly lied to 
me. Over a year has passed, and he owes me 
the money yet — seventeen dollars. I am a poor 
mechanic, and it comes hard on me to lose it. 
No ; I pay not a cent for pew-rent. ' ' 

The man who cheated the poor mechanic was 
quite a prominent person in his church, a loud 
talker about the things of the kingdom, quite a 
self -emulator, and something of a boss. A short 
time after his experience with the poor mechanic, 
the collector met with the boss, who began mak- 
ing a whining complaint of the low state of re- 
ligion in the town, and that he thought he would 
seek another place more congenial to his high 
religious aspirations, holy emotions, and faith- 
exercises. The good collector faced him fairly, 
and gave him the hot shot. ' ' Do you know, ' ' 
said he, ' ' who is the cause of religion being at a 
low ebb in our town?" 

* * Who ? ' ' says the boss. 

" Why, you are; and I'll tell you how." He 



76 PEN PARABLES 

then told him about the poor mechanic to whom 
he owed seventeen dollars ; how he refused to pay 
his pew-rent because of his (the boss's) lies to 
him, and because of his having cheated him. 
The old boss completely wilted down ; and, al- 
though several years have passed since this in- 
cident occurred, I believe he has never had the 
assurance to lift his self-condemning visage to 
any height since. The same old Arab owed my 
father twelve dollars. After the bill had run for 
some two years, I sent it to his church, stating 
that I would make it a donation to the church, 
and that they might collect it. Another shot for 
the old boss ! 

Another incident will show the benefit of 
hot reproof on these trouble-makers. My dear 
brother Barnes, of whom I wrote to you in a 
former letter (he is still living, a great sufferer), 
noticed one Sabbath morning as he was on his 
way to church (this occurred several years ago), 
one of the prominent deacons of the church, who 
was and is still a great railroad magnate in the 
city of Brooklyn, very busily engaged in giving 
his men directions about putting down a railroad 
track through a prominent street, the residents on 
which had objected to the track. The railroad 



INCONSISTENT CHURCH MEMBERS 77 

men were engaged in the work on the Sabbath, 
by doing which they took advantage of some legal 
provision which prevented them from being hin- 
dered in their work. Brother Barnes took his 
seat in church. It was communion Sabbath. 
Said he to me afterward : 

"When the bread and wine were to be passed 
around, whom should I see coming down my aisle 
but the old deacon whom but a few minutes be- 
fore I had seen on the street commanding his 
men — and in not very finely used language either 
— and directing in the track-laying. When he 
came to me, I refused to take the holy elements. 
He looked amazed, and passed on. A few days 
after I met him upon the street, and he asked 
rather sharply, ' I want to know why you did not 
partake of the bread and wine on last Sabbath, 
when I brought them to you?' 'Because,' said I, 
'they were too sacred things to take from unclean 
hands. ' " It was a hot shot sent into the old 
boss, and he replied to Barnes: "I'll have you 
brought up before the church." 

"All right, deacon," he said, "I'll come when- 
ever you want me. ' ' But Barnes was never sent 
for. Now it is in this spirit that these trouble- 
mongers in the church must often be met. 




RECREATION AND THE 
CHURCH MEMBER 




OUR remark is indeed true that "mul- 
titudes consult Webster more than 
they do their Bibles." Oh, what 
witnesses against their real interest 
in and deep love for the Bible are those who hav- 
ing professed to make it the * ' man of their coun- 
sel and the guide of their steps" can yet find 
not enough in the word and the holy streams of 
gospel literature flowing in every direction there- 
from, to interest and entertain them ! How these 
advertise the fact that to fill their minds with the 
trashy, corrupting, grace-killing literature of the 
day, and to fill their hearts with love for senseless, 
unchristian amusements, is by far of more inter- 
est to them than the blessed word of life ! 

What numbers of professing Christians I know 
who have said to me : ' ' Well, I must have some 
78 



RECREATION 79 

recreation, so I go to the theater with my wife 
once a week." What multitudes join clubs and 
associations to help spend their spare hours in 
companionships and doings they would blush to 
tell of, and would, were it openly known, make 
them most fit subjects not only for church dis- 
cipline, but expulsion. What numbers make the 
Sabbath-day a newspaper-reading day or a novel- 
reading day. Anything, everything, apparently, 
to avoid the reading, the study of that word in 
which they profess to believe, by whose light they 
profess to have been illumined, and through faith 
in the Saviour of which they profess to have been 
renewed and redeemed! Oh, what wounds do 
such give the Saviour ! And what a depreciating 
value they lead the world to set upon that Sav- 
iour's death and salvation ! It was but a few 
weeks ago that a worldly young man took great 
pleasure in spreading abroad the fact, that as 
soon as the church services were over one Sabbath 
morning, a prominent young lady member of the 
church approached him in the church and urged 
him to buy a ticket for a very large ball which 
was to be given at a prominent club-house in our 
place. 



80 PEN PARABLES 

BUT thus, beloved in the Lord, we have not 
learned Christ. What more can we wish 
for than holy companionship with him ? What 
greater delight than to walk, day by day, in the 
gospel vineyard, where we find all those holy en- 
tertainments for our Christian thought, our heart- 
joy, our soul-growth in grace, of which I have 
just written? What a dishonor to our Master 
we would feel it to be ! What an evidence to our 
own spirits of a very low grace-temperature did 
we feel that spiritual things were so dry and un- 
interesting that we had to go to the world and 
take lunch with the devil for a little recreation ! 
He who eats with Satan must eat Satan food — 
this is grace-poison or poison to grace — he must 
drink sin-intoxicants who drinks with Satan — 
this is the rule of Satan's house. What a sight 
to see a poor erring Christian professor trying to 
get back home to his place in Christ's fold, stag- 
gering under the influence of sin-intoxicants, and 
loaded up with sin-garbage, as the result of his 
attendance at a sin-banquet given in honor of 
Satan by the world ! 

On last evening a week, Dr. Menhall preached 
on professing Christians taking part in worldly 
amusements, the dance, the theater, card-playing. 



RECREATION 



81 



I never before heard such a sermon. I never 
heard professors who engage in these amuse- 
ments so ridiculed, so roughly handled, so 
shown up, and so abused. And it was all right, 
too. Many arose and left the meeting. My heart- 
prayer all through the sermon was, "God help 
him; God help him; whatever of it is for me, 
Lord, help me to profit by it." Now, I am 
no theater-goer — never was; no dancer — never 
was ; no card-player. Occasionally I used to go 
to the opera, thinking it was no harm, although 
I have not now been in ten years. Last winter I 
went to hear a band of minstrels in New York 
City. I saw, I heard nothing wrong there ; but 
then I thought as I sat there, "Am I, as a Chris- 
tian, in a proper place ? ' ' After that sermon, I 
said to my dear wife: "Never opera again — no 
more minstrels — I want to do nothing that will 
bring even the shadow of a reproach upon the 
cause of my blessed, dear Redeemer. I love him 
too much to do anything displeasing to him. ' ' 





CHURCH BOSSES 




HERE is a spirit which is threatening 
still greater evil, already having 
done much, in the American Prot- 
estant Church. It is "Bossism." 
Mr. Beecher often said : * ' One of the great evils 
which will come out of American liberty will 
spring from the fact that we have too much lib- 
erty. ' ' Years ago we would occasionally hear of 
some old ruling spirit, inflated with the idea of 
his supreme importance in the church and con- 
gregation, seeking to rule people, consistory and 
pastor. People stood aghast at his audacity, and 
quite wondered that the Lord did not intervene 
in some especial providence, roll him up into a 
round ball, set him rolling to the end of the earth, 
and thence into depths unknown. 

At this day the rage for bossism has become 
so great, and the exercise of its imperiousness has 
so increased, that it is growing to be a really 
82 



CHURCH BOSSES 83 

alarming element in the Christian church. And 
the alarm puts the question : ' ' Whereunto shall 
it lead?" From almost every direction come the 
reports : "We would get on very well, but for the 
bossism which is hindering our prosperity. ' ' But 
a few days ago I received a letter from one of the 
Lord's beloved whom I well know — really a man 
of God. Said he, "My heart is broken. An old 
Boss has dethroned our dear pastor — church all 
gone to quite nothing, and now they (he and a 
few with him) have set to lying about and scan- 
dalizing me and my dear wife. Matters took 
such a hostile shape against our entire innocency 
and our self-sacrificing work for Jesus, that I felt 
constrained to go to them and say that if they 
continued I would in a court of justice call upon 
them to prove all they have said against us, then 
indict them in the absence of such proof for de- 
famation of character, which crime is punishable 
in the State in which we live with five years' im- 
prisonment. Since that they have left us coldly 
alone." 

You will probably read of the sudden death 
(in the Intelligencer) of a school companion, an 
intimate friend of mine, a truly godly man. 
He had just changed his pastorate. A rich old 



84 PEN PARABLES 

' ' boss" in the former place made it so hot for 
him there that he left. He was a man of deli- 
cate organism, extremely nervous; one who has 
passed through deep seas of trial in his day. To 
what extent that boss's action may indirectly 
have aided in helping on his sudden death, it 
may not be difficult to conjecture. As I now 
look from my window, a beautiful church edifice 
stands glowing in the bright sunlight, about one- 
half mile distant. Within the past year, the dear, 
good pastor, whom I most fondly loved for his 
tender, gentle, Christian spirit, was ousted by an 
"old boss," church closed for many months, peo- 
ple divided and scattered. The Lord directed 
the good pastor by sending him at once to a 
charge twice as good. Now, I could go on rela- 
ting case upon case of this character, at the bottom 
of which is "bossism," in combination, of course, 
with diabolism. This bossism has its origin gen- 
erally in money. The man gets a little more 
money than some of the other members in the 
congregation ; becomes somewhat liberal in church 
matters with it. The people begin to respect him 
a little more than they do the poor devout. By 
and by they begin to adore him, make him elder 
or deacon, chairman of the most important church 



CHURCH BOSSES 85 

committees — in fact, give him pretty much every- 
thing to direct in the church. And now he 
begins to feel his importance. He becomes im- 
perious, dictatorial, self-conceited, arrogant, and 
assumes to drive the whole machinery of the 
church, pastor included. His position leads him 
to imagine that he is a person of large intellec- 
tuality, of more than ordinary importance in the 
Lord's estimation, and that nothing right can be 
done in the church without his sanction. And 
now comes the one-man power ; and so the spirit- 
ual interests of the church are made to suffer. 
The humble, godly, devotional spirit of the meek 
of the congregation is too tame, too low, and too 
slow for his progressiveness, and the preaching of 
the pure gospel has not enough life and fire in it ; 
so the domine is ignored and given to understand 
that he had better wind up his connection with 
that church. I know that this is precisely the 
way this bossism has worked in very many in- 
stances I could name. Nothing at this day is 
doing, and has a tendency to do, more harm to 
the prosperity of the church than this "fakirism" 
of which you have written, and this "bossism" of 
which I write. It seems to be showing its evil 
power in almost every church, and there is an 



86 PEN PARABLES 

intense rivalry for its scepter. What is to be the 
outcome, who can tell? For those to gain rule 
and power in any church in the line of moneyed 
or other influence without the spirit of the gospel 
behind all as the impelling force — this is to 
quite certainly write upon the doors of that church 
in the not very distant future : ' ' Dissatisfied, dis- 
integrated membership — loss of spirituality — re- 
signation of pastor — closed for the present' ' ; and 
underneath the notice, ' ' Bossism — Fakirism. ' ' 

I HAVE in my day felt the effects of bossism 
in our community and church; and I will 
carry the wounds many a day. Had it been 
world-hindrance, it was nothing more than could 
have been expected ; but, to be hindered by those 
who profess to be helpers in good, how it cuts ! 
On every side also I hear of those in the ministry 
laid more or less under the domination of boss- 
ism. Some old religious imbecile, as far as the 
true knowledge of Christ and the possession of 
his spirit are concerned, gets a foothold in the 
church, gets some influence, is dumb enough, and 
in his cranial and heart emptiness has brass 
enough — and the brass is generally the result and 



CHURCH BOSSES 87 

the sign of the ignoramus — to try and run the 
church and the minister in his own interests ; and, 
if he cannot do this, then split the congregation 
and" oust the domine. 

LET me here give you a sample of these old 
fault-finding croakers, one of whom came 
directly under my observation. He did much to 
help dethrone a good pastor and disintegrate the 
congregation. This man having called upon me 
to aid him in arranging some important business, 
I went to his house at the appointed hour. I had 
not been long with him ere he began to talk 
about church matters (he was very glib of tongue) 
and asked how matters went on in the church I 
attended, I told him, very well. He then said 
in words nearly as follows : "Well, I go to church, 
and when I come home I throw myself upon the 
sofa, and I groan, and say: 'What spiritual good 
have I received to-day? None! None! Oh, 
how tired I am of this preaching !' ' ' I said noth- 
ing, nor did he make any impression of opposition 
upon my mind against the good man of whom he 
spoke, for I had known that pastor for over twenty 
years ; and during all the time had deeply esteemed 
him for his kindness of heart, his deep piety, and 



88 PEN PARABLES 

very large religious knowledge. As I said noth- 
ing to encourage the complainer, the subject soon 
dropped. Some months after this I had business 
transactions with the provision-supply committee 
of a very large public charitable institution. In 
conversation with the chairman of the committee. 
I was told that they had had great trouble with 
the party who had contracted to supply the insti- 
tution with provisions, because they had discov- 
ered that he was grossly deceiving them in false 
weight, and they had to discharge him ; and be- 
hold, on learning the man's name, I found it was 
he who but a little before had told me that he 
came from church and threw himself down, 
saying, " What have I received of good ?" etc., etc. 

To Mr. David Low: 

YOU write of Mr. Pratt's troubles. Alas, 
how natural it all seems to me, for I have 
not only heard but seen and experienced so much 
of this. To have a really good, humble man 
who will toil and pray for the building up of the 
church, and so become humbly influential in good 
doing, is a blessing to be coveted by any church ; 
but to have those who from selfish and rule- 



CHURCH BOSSES 89 

loving motives, dictate to the pastor as to how he 
should preach, is to meet with one of the greatest 
calamities that can befall a congregation. Truly 
converted, godly, humble men, however educated 
or influential or rich, seldom make such trouble ! 
It generally comes from the ignorant who, having 
been brought at first into the church by reason of 
wealth or social influence, are led by self-conceit 
to think they are set to rule, and become dic- 
tators. Some of the best efforts in the church 
with which I am connected, efforts set on foot by 
the most godly men and women, efforts whose 
growing power for good promised the greatest 
results for the good of souls, for the glory of 
Christ, have been nipped in the bud by some over- 
ruling dictatorial boss in the fold. I know of 
several instances of young men, intimate acquaint- 
ances of mine, who began their pastorates with 
the earnest, hearty, consecrated heart-desire to do 
good, but who were soon ousted out of their pas- 
torship by some ignorant but influential wealthy 
boss of the congregation, who had been inadvert- 
ently admitted into the peaceful sheepfold — but 
when once in had proved himself a tormenting, 
trouble-breeding and peace-destroying wolf. 



90 PEN PARABLES 

I CANNOT but remember how, some years ago, 
I had my own heart pierced by my efforts in 
good being suddenly paralyzed by some promi- 
nent bosses in our community, or church rather 
— a set-back I then received, from which to this 
day I never have recovered. There had been 
church service on the Sabbath afternoon for a 
long time, its object being to give the Sabbath 
School scholars an opportunity to hear the gospel 
— an opportunity which on almost every Sabbath 
nearly every scholar in the school embraced. In 
the evening of the Sabbath a prayer-meeting was 
held. Several of the younger members of the 
church united in Christian effort to awaken and 
to keep up an interest in the meetings. Our 
efforts met with signal success. The Lord was 
with us. Our meetings were held in the Sunday 
School building of the church, a building capa- 
ble of seating some three hundred persons. The 
large attendance upon the meetings so increased 
that the building was completely filled, and the 
doors of the infant department of the Sunday 
School had to be thrown open to accommodate the 
overflow. I was a frequent exhorter in the meet- 
ings, as well as many of the other young members 
and older ones who attended. There was evident 



CHURCH BOSSES 91 

manifestation of the presence and power of the 
Spirit ; many persons attending regularly who for 
years before had taken no interest in church or 
meeting — all this gave certain evidence of a com- 
ing revival. There was no excitement; every- 
thing had been conducted orderly and without 
demonstration. Suddenly one or two of the bosses 
came to the conclusion that it was not the province 
of laymen to exhort ; that only trained ministers 
of the gospel should speak in Christian assem- 
blages to the people. So they concluded that a 
great change was necessary to cut off the exhorters, 
old and young — and they made the change, the 
minister who had just come into our church unit- 
ing with them in it. I suppose that no revival 
was wanted unless it grew out of the regular ca- 
nonical line of church direction under machinery- 
constituted authority. And what was the change ? 
The Sabbath afternoon service in the church was 
suspended, and the God-blessed prayer-meeting 
was thrown entirely overboard — thrown over in 
the full tide of a prosperity which had never be- 
fore been witnessed among us in this direction, 
nor ever since ; not even an approximation to it. 
Large numbers of those who had been led to 
attend the prayer-meeting left with sad hearts, 



92 PEN PARABLES 

and have seldom ever been in the sanctuary since. 
My great heart-grief was not that I was cut off 
from praying and exhorting, but that such 
abundant means of grace, such deep interest mani- 
fested by such numbers of the impenitent in their 
regular attendance at those prayer-meetings, such 
evident approach of a blessed refreshing, such 
advantages granted to the children, were all 
ignored, discounted, thrown aside in the face of 
God and man to gratify the ruling of a few spirit- 
less religious church imperialists. All this oc- 
curred many years ago, but the withering effect it 
had on my Christian zeal, and the great disap- 
pointment for Jesus' sake, for impenitent sinners' 
sake, for Zion's sake, have to this day followed 
me. <Q 

FOR such arrogance and ignorance there is no 
true Christian but must have the utmost 
contempt, and cannot but feel a righteous an- 
tagonism to such a rule ; although it is better to 
endure much, often, than to bring trouble by 
stern opposition. 

There is, however, a holy bossism under which 
I love to sit, and by which to be largely ruled. 
It is that of the man whose humble piety, whose 



CHURCH BOSSES 93 

winning Christian character, united with large 
intelligence and prudence, is naturally, and by 
grace, constituted to bear the burdens, and take 
a leading part in a church's affairs, and does all 
because of his love for the Master, and with the 
humble unselfish desire to further the best inter- 
ests of Zion. What a blessing to have such to 
look to and to follow ! With such bossism my 
whole being is in full accord. But who desires 
to be ruled, or feels satisfied with the rule in his 
church of one who has little of the gentle spirit 
of Christ, and assumes rule because he loves to 
rule, and with the brazen boldness of ignorance 
and self-conceit, puts forth ignorance for knowl- 
edge, and seeks to make this the scepter of rule 
for pastor and people? I know the chafing effect 
this must have upon your Christian hearts. Still 
endure for a little, the Lord will soon take boss- 
ism in hand, and then it will soon become ap- 
parent who is boss. 

v * 

A FRIEND with whom I correspond, but last 
month sent me an account of the work of 
bossism in his church. The good pastor had 
been driven out, is now in an insane asylum. 
The church became divided, and so strong was 



94« PEN PARABLES 

the opposition that many of the parties of the two 
factions would not even speak to each other. 
What a blot upon the cause of our good Lord ! 
What heart wounds, what discouragements for 
those who are toiling and praying for the up- 
building of the cause of our Redeemer ! The 
friend who wrote me about the matter, said he 
thought he must withdraw from the church, and 
asked my advice. I of course advised him not 
to do so, but to walk humbly, meekly, prayerfully 
before the Lord, and the world. 

These bosses would rather see the cause of 
Christ suffer in the eyes of the world, and wound 
the hearts of God's dear children, than relinquish 
their self-constituted claim to authority and rule. 
Well may it be said of such: "The ways of 
peace have they not known. ' ' 

THE DOWNFALL OF THE BOSS 

IN the overthrow of bossism in church or state, 
there is often a marked interposition of Prov- 
idence ; so marked as to lead especially the igno- 
rant, the selfishly arrogant and overbearing, to 
tremble lest they become the subjects of Divine 
dealing. In a church in a neighboring city, an 



CHURCH BOSSES 95 

old boss and his two sons gradually wormed them- 
selves into ruling power. The father was a man 
of considerable influence and ability. His im- 
perious rule went so far that the good pastor was 
hindered in his work ; discontent was rife through- 
out all the membership. In every direction the 
name of the boss was heard, and his influence 
felt. The church's power became weakened; a 
serious disruption was imminent. But suddenly 
boss was taken sick, after a few weeks he died, 
and the Lord took him to himself. He was not 
a bad man, nor a wicked, but very meddlesome 
in church government, and evidently thought he 
was born to rule. After his departure, then had 
the church rest. The two sons, not having the 
mind nor influence of the father, were soon dis- 
posed of. Since that time to the present, for 
some seven years, the church has gone on prosper- 
ously. I know of all the matter, for my brother- 
in-law and two sisters-in-law are members of that 
church. _ 

HOW it delighted me to hear of Mr. Pratt's 
success in getting into a good place ! It 
must have been quite a rebuke to the boss, unless 
his self-conceit was too large to feel or take re- 



96 



PEN PARABLES 



buke. I imagine that he thought when he got 
Mr. Pratt out, that was the end of Pratt forever 
and forever. This reminds me of a subscriber to 
a newspaper, who became offended at the editor, 
and at once sent word, "Stop my paper!' 1 After 
a few weeks the subscriber walked around to see 
if the editor's office was not closed, and the paper 
discontinued, and the whole business broken up ; 
but to his disappointment he found everything 
going on as prosperously as ever. His idea of 
his own importance and influence was so great 
that he imagined that his withdrawal of his sub- 
scription would wreck the whole concern. Well, 
a great explosion will soon be heard, and the 
shattered bubble will fly to the four winds and 
the boss will exist only in memory — a grotesque 
caricature of one-man church power ; an imperious 
monstrosity chained to a huge pillar of self-con- 
ceit endeavoring to inflate a big gas-bag with the 
expansive lightness of ignorance. Such will be 
the end of the Boss. 






CHURCH SPLITS AND THE 
QUARRELS OF CHRIS- 
TIANS 

ROM the letter you wrote me soon 
after returning from General Sy- 
nod, I gather that you did not go 
off in a rapture of unbounded de- 
light and begin to * ' sit and sing yourself away to 
everlasting bliss," over the holy gathering. I 
wonder not that you felt very much disappointed 
and heart-sore after the high expectations you 
had formed of meeting with the ' ' Sanhedrin. ' ' 

I well remember how, when a few years ago I 
attended a very large Association of Sabbath 
School teachers, and those interested in Sabbath 
School work, that shortly after the opening of the 
meeting, something was said that provoked a dis- 
cussion among some of the delegates. In a little 
time the fire of personal animosity was enkindled ; 
97 



98 PEN PARABLES 

and then began retorting volleys of angry looks, 
threatening gestures, name-callings and hard 
speeches, which spiritually sterilized the hearts 
of nearly all present and quite defeated the ob- 
ject of the meeting. The multitude went back 
to their homes with wounded hearts because of 
the injury such an exhibition had done the cause 
of their dear Lord. Many outsiders in derisive 
laughter sarcastically exclaimed: " Behold, how 
these Christians love one another ! ' ' But I shall 
never forget one thing in connection with this 
stormy assemblage, which made it a meeting of 
great spiritual profit to me, notwithstanding the 
heart- wounds I felt. It was the meek, gentle, 
loving, unperturbed spirit of one of the members 
against whom the most powerful invectives were 
directed. He did not retort — no harsh word fell 
from his lips. He stood among that frenzied 
gathering, a monument of the beauty and love- 
liness and power of the religion of Jesus, which 
none could but admire and love. It was a glory- 
triumph for Christ in that soul, which I know he 
could never fail to remember but with a joyous, 
thankful heart. The holy conduct of that brother 
has ever since I witnessed it stood before me as an 
example of instruction, of profit, and for holy 



CHURCH SPLITS 99 

imitation in my Christian life; the conduct of 
the others as an illustration of littleness and 
of dwarfed spirituality. 

BUT while you have these hindrances to gos- 
pel progress among you, we have church 
troubles here of quite as serious a character. 
They are church-splitting, and bossism. That 
the spirit of Christ is here wanting as well as in 
the doings of which you wrote is very evident. 
The splitting up of congregations has been going 
on here for years — generally in this way. A 
church is organized with a few members, and a 
Sunday School brought together. All goes on 
well and in apparent unity. By and by a church 
building is erected — things prosper. After a 
little, bossism creeps in — arrays one part of the 
congregation against the other — then a conflict as 
to who shall hold the fort — finally a split. One 
boss with his adherents stays in the old fort 
against sin (but which the spirit of strife has 
terribly riddled), and the world gathers around 
in happy mood, exclaiming: "Holes in professing 
Christians which make us dance for joy as we 
look through them." The other boss leads his 



100 PEN PARABLES 

tribe to some new hunting-ground, pitches his 
tent, builds his church, and in the spirit of selfish 
animosity to the old fort and its holders, puts up 
his sign — "The true temple of the Lord are we." 
The well-pleased world as it passes by cries out — 
"But not for me." The old church edifice was 
never half filled when all were together. The 
debt on the old church was never paid. It was 
by a terrible * ' force put' ' that even a starvation 
salary was raised for the pastor. And now comes 
the subdivision of poverty, each division under- 
taking to do what the two united could not do — 
a wondrous transgression of the laws of political 
and spiritual economy. 

Of the general evil of this splitting work I 
have for many years been a witness in this vicin- 
ity. Where the division has become a necessity 
from the increase of population in a large con- 
gregation and the parting has been in a Christian 
spirit, all has gone well and the Lord's blessing 
went with both ; but where the parting resulted 
from a spirit of strife, the outcome has in almost 
every instance I have witnessed ended in disaster 
of some kind, generally in spiritual disaster. 

To ask the good Lord to bless and carry on a 
good work, as I have often heard these separatists 



CHURCH SPLITS 101 

pray, was an insult to him, and results proved it. 
Some of these very churches in this vicinity, 
which I pass Sabbath after Sabbath on my way 
to worship, have but a name. A handful of wor- 
shipers — closed half of the time — no minister — 
no means, and that means a general periodical 
raid on the community at large for the ^where- 
with." From my very large correspondence I 
learn that this subdividing spirit prevails in many 
communities. ,_ 

I AM exceedingly sorry for Jesus' sake, that 
such a disrupture should occur as that you 
write of in your letter. It speaks so sadly for 
the truth of the holy religion of our Lord. Satan 
will lose no opportunity to make out of it all the 
capital he can, for opposing the truth, and lead- 
ing the world to glory in its increased hostility 
to the cross of our Lord. What fools often, those 
who wish to be thought wise, discreet, upright in 
Christian conversation and action, will make of 
themselves, because of their idiotic stubbornness 
in some little trivial matter, which in the calm 
exchange of a few words of sense and mildness, 
might at once be adjusted. And especially what 
a holy show (as our Pat says) do professing 



102 PEN PARABLES 

Christians make when they war among them- 
selves ! 

So long as the mule-will of any professor will 
not let him yield for Jesus' sake, to take what to 
him may be even a cross, such a professor is still 
in the "gall of bitterness and the bonds of in- 
iquity. ' ' 

QUARRELS AMONG CHRISTIANS 

DOES not the inharmoniousness often of those 
who profess Christ, give the lie to the as- 
sertion that "religious ways are ways of pleasant- 
ness, and all her paths are peace"? We cannot 
make the world lenient in its judgment and say: 
"Well there is a true religion, but these hostile 
brethren have it not. ' ' Oh, no ! the world passes 
one sweeping condemnation on the whole matter, 
accepts no excuses, makes no concessions, modifies 
no judgment; it says as it sees professors antag- 
onistic to each other: "Religion is false; I do 
not want it. ' ' Oh, how careful should the child 
of the Saviour be, not to thus wound him ! 

Should he not rather suffer himself to be de- 
frauded, to be deceived ; not rather yield up his 
own will for the love, for the honor of Christ? 
There is a right course which every Christian 



CHURCH SPLITS 103 

should take in perplexities, in trials — namely : to 
sit humbly at the foot of the cross, and learn of 
Jesus. 

And shall they be blameless for all this in the 
day of final account ? Shall they hear the wel- 
come of Jesus, "Well done, thou good and faith- 
ful servant? 1 ' 

STAY IN THE CHURCH ! 

YOU inquired of me as to what course you 
should take in your connection with the 
church. I hope you have taken the course to 
stick quietly at your Christian work, and to do 
all you can for the advancement of the Saviour's 
cause. I hope you stand independent, not ad- 
hering to either party, so that you, as a Christian, 
may be instrumental in aiding a reconciliation. 
It must be quite a cross, I know, to have to do 
with those who perverted truth to accomplish their 
object. But for this reason you should not with- 
draw from the church, especially in your position 
as superintendent of the mission school. I have 
often been terribly wounded by the inconsistencies 
of professors, and by falsehoods regarding myself ; 
but I have gone quietly on my way, hiding my 
deep wounds in silence, and appealing to my dear 



104 



PEN PARABLES 



Lord for help ; and so the wound was healed and 
forgotten. We are all poor erring creatures — 
none are perfect. We are not called to make a 
poor weak mortal our example; no, the Holy 
Saviour is our blessed exemplar ; so follow him. 
If you withdraw from the church because of these 
deceivers, you do injury to Jesus' cause, and only 
help feed the flame of strife. Your withdrawal 
will not be a rebuke to those persons. Stick to 
the church — walk in very close communion with 
the dear Saviour — continually appeal to the Lord 
for guidance. 





DENOMINATIONAL 
"LAPPING" 




WAS greatly pleased with your article 
I saw lately in the Intelligencer on 
' ' Fakirism. ' ' It was a straightfor- 
ward eye-opening article for us here 
in the East to be sure we are on the right track 
in knowing where and to whom we send our 
charities, and how they are to be used. 

The very boldness and impudence of this Fa- 
kirism, as you call it, is the certain evidence of its 
entire lack of the humble, brotherly, Christlike 
spirit. It bears upon its face a zeal without 
knowledge. Of such a zeal any denomination 
ought to be ashamed, and denounce it in the 
highest opposing terms with most prompt action. 
It is bigotry, it is the spirit of enmity to the true 
import of the gospel. It is a prolific decoction 
to produce spiritual drought and death wherever it 
105 



106 



PEN PARABLES 



goes, a decoction of "diabolus, mundus et car- 
nis. ' ' That it is all this is very apparent from the 
sad results following, as you have set forth. It 
is a course of action which shows that the profes- 
sedly Christian zealot hangs his faith and salva- 
tion more on denominationalism than on the 
atonement of Christ. 





THE SABBATH, THE 
CHURCH AND LABOR 




OU write about your summary man- 
ner of dealing with Sabbath-break- 
ers. I am glad that you are thus 
bold for the Master. I know he 
will sustain you. I wish your spirit was in the 
multitudes of professing Christians in this part 
of the land. In and about our large cities the 
Sabbath is becoming less and less reverenced by 
both worldly men and professors of religion. 
That the impenitent and worldly do not care 
much about the holy day, is of course not very 
strange; but that those who profess to be the 
Lord's should care little about their conduct and 
doings in the way of siding with the world, is sad 
indeed. 

Professing Christians here, many I know of, 
take the secular Sunday papers, and spend a large 
107 



108 PEN PARABLES 

portion of the day reading them ; have the butcher 
coming to their door on Sunday morning ; have 
the ice-cream wagons from the caterer's deliver 
Sunday cream at their houses ; take Sunday after- 
noon rides in our parks ; all entirely careless, it 
seems, about their Christian example. And they 
call it independence of character ! 

In short, there is a great irreverence for the 
dear Sabbath among many whose professed regard 
for holy things ought to make them hide their 
faces in shame at their sin. The great error with 
many professors is, that in the matter of holy ex- 
ample they have the vaguest, loosest notions ; they 
seem to think that they are not called upon to 
exemplify by a holy, careful life of self-denial 
and godly living the glory, the reality, and the 
attractiveness of the blessed religion of Jesus. Of 
course I do not include all of our brethren in this 
class, on the contrary we have, as you have among 
you, many "whose delight is in the law of the 

ONE Sabbath evening last summer I had a 
great contest with my market-man who 
wanted to leave with his load for market at nine 
o'clock Sabbath evening. I was determined he 



SABBATH— CHURCH— LABOR 109 

should not go, and he threatened to leave me. I 
told him to leave. I also told him that one of 
my Christian neighbors never would have his 
wagons start till after twelve o'clock midnight, 
on Sabbath evenings. My man left after twelve ; 
but when he returned he was overjoyed as he 
told me : ' * You wanted to make your Christian 
neighbor an example of Sabbath keeping, but 
when I arrived at the market, I found that he 
had sent in his wagons at nine o'clock Sabbath 
evening, and was all unloaded before twelve 
o'clock." I was deeply wounded, but what could 
I say? Oh, what injury professors often bring 
by their deeds upon the name and cause of Jesus ! 



AND furthermore, I know that those who 
strictly observe the Lord's day will be 
blest ; and I know that those who think they can- 
not afford to give the dear Saviour his day, but 
employ it in the furtherance of their secular in- 
terests will quite certainly come to grief. I had 
a foreman who worked several years for me. He 
told me that at one time he was quite well off, 
and prospered in his business. Increasing pros- 
perity led him to work in his business on the 



110 PEN PARABLES 

Lord's day. He told me that soon after this the 
business began to fail, and it was but a little 
time when he lost all his custom, had to give up, 
and seek daily employment. His firm conviction 
expressed to me was that his attention to business 
on the Sabbath was the means or the cause of his 
utter failure. 

IN the conversion of another is this testimony : 
In my bold desecration of the Sabbath-day 
the Lord visited me in the very act of my trans- 
gression with such a providential disaster that I 
could not but hear, to my own soul-terror and 
deep conviction, his voice loudly warning me of 
my sin : ' ' Poor sinner, but for thy desecration of 
my holy day this calamity would not have come 
upon thee. Wilt thou forsake thy sins?' ' With 
all my heart I thank him for that visitation 
whereby I was led humbly to acknowledge him, 
to repent of my sin, and to love and serve my 
Saviour who is now to me, and ever shall be, 
"The one altogether lovely; the chief est among 
ten thousand. ' ' 





SUNDAY NEWSPAPERS 

FEW words about Sunday papers — 
I mean Sunday secular papers ; and 
some of the professedly religious 
Sunday papers are fast becoming so 
secular, that they may be included in the same 
class. It is quite as dangerous to read them. 
Those who have not very strong religious convic- 
tions and sentiments in regard to Sabbath read- 
ing, will soon find themselves reading the ad- 
vertisements and secularities of the professedly 
religious paper they took up because it contained 
religious reading. 

And so as Satan gets into world under the 
shadow of the religious ; he also gets into the re- 
ligious under the shadow of the world. He leads 
the secular editor to put one or two little religious 
articles in his Sunday edition ; for surely no pro- 
fessing Christian can object to reading the secu- 
lar Sunday paper which has a religious article in 
111 



112 PEN PARABLES 

it. The whole thing is only a blind to shove out 
the Sunday newspaper, and under the guise of a 
little religious article to lead easily duped Chris- 
tian professors to take and read all the secular con- 
tents; and furnishing professedly worldly men 
with two fine excuses for reading it ; first — the 
paper has a religious article in it ; and second — 
many professing Christians read it. Thus the 
holy Sabbath day is lost to those who thus pass 
it and Satan gains a point, while he comes as 
an "angel of light." 

I NOTICED, not long ago, a prominent church 
member in our Flatbush Dutch Church go 
regularly to the news stand before entering the 
church, to get the Sunday secular paper. He is 
a man of considerable intelligence. I anxiously 
watched him. He, with his wife and two bright 
children, were at first strict attendants at the 
church ; but after awhile they began to fall off, 
and now they do not come at all. I believe his 
dear children do not attend Sabbath School and 
where they have now got to, I do not know. 
Their last trial was the Baptist church in our 
place. I verily believe it was the reading of sec- 



SUNDAY NEWSPAPERS 113 

ular Sunday papers which first twisted his head 
and heart. 

Now everything is at fault with him, nothing 
right in church or minister, everything and every- 
body wrong but himself. 

I had two neighbors, professing Christians; 
both secular Sunday newspaper readers, Sunday 
visitors — did not care in general much what they 
did upon the Sabbath. Both were praying men ; 
I mean, they took part in public prayer. We 
had in operation a prosperous district prayer- 
meeting. The first to throw a cloud over the meet- 
ings were these two men, and how, you may ask, 
did they do this? They gradually left the meet- 
ing to attend to their worldly business. At length 
when the meeting was held at their own houses, 
they were absent, and so gradually the meetings 
died out until only one attendant was left, and so 
they were discontinued. What injury often the 
careless example of professing Christians does to 
the church — and especially what harm to younger 
Christians ! 





RUM, LEGISLATION AND 
CHRISTIANITY 




RINK is becoming the hot curse of 
our dear land. I would rather be an 
optimist, but I must confess, when 
I look at the rum evil, I am a pessi- 
mist, and for a while, a blue one. The evil 
about you is not so bad as in many other places ; 
not so bad perhaps as in my own place, where 
for five thousand inhabitants there are seventy- 
four saloons. I get great comfort however in 
the holy promise-text : ' ' When the enemy shall 
come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall 
lift up a standard against him.'" 

OH, what a terrible curse is liquor, what an 
evil boiling up from the very depths of the 
pit itself ! What noble young men have I seen 
go down under its dark waves, never again to rise 
114 



RUM AND CHRISTIANITY 115 

— what numbers in the vigor of manhood slain — 
what numbers I know, and see daily on the down- 
ward road ! What desolated homes, what broken- 
hearted wives, husbands, parents, brothers and 
sisters ! — all made so from rum. Only yesterday 
the sad news was told me of the insanity of a dear 
friend, a noble young lady in our place. Her 
husband through many years of dissipation broke 
her poor heart. He died a drunkard not long 
since ; his death, I believe, has been the cause of 
her madness. I saw an aged minister not long 
ago come into one of our city courts, and there 
before a court-room full of people, plead with the 
judge that he would direct him how to deal with 
his drunken son. Another young man of our 
place not long since fell from the street-car in- 
toxicated; the wheel passed over him, and he 
lived only a short time. A dear, beautiful 
young lady, a relative of mine, died not long 
since of a broken heart, caused by the death of 
her father, who spent his large fortune in drink 
and left her not a penny for support. I have 
an uncle and three of his sons with him in drunk- 
ards' graves, and I expect to hear of the death of 
the fourth son at any time from the same cause. 
In the face of all this misery, poverty, shame, 



116 PEN PARABLES 

crime and degradation, the laws of our state legis- 
late the privilege of selling liquor ; and unprin- 
cipled, hard-hearted, soul-destroying, God-hating 
men avail themselves, for the sake of gain, of the 
law's unjust license to sell to men, and to manu- 
facture that which they know is ruining souls and 
bodies — and sending tornadoes of perdition-fire 
through all our community. 



I REMEMBER the long argument I once had 
with an intelligent man who had gone far on 
the road to the drunkard's grave. I argued the 
evil to body, soul, family, companions, commu- 
nity. He admitted as true all I said, but made 
me no promise of reform. After many weeks I 
again saw him ; he was perfectly sober, a different 
looking man. He seemed very glad to meet me, 
and said : "Since your conversation with me about 
drinking, I have abandoned it entirely ; have not 
touched liquor since you last saw me. I am 
already a better man, morally, physically, finan- 
cially, and socially. Rum is the devil's stimu- 
lant in the soul which leads to the basest thought, 
the foulest language and the most offensive 
deeds ; it disintegrates the body functions, and if 



RUM AND CHRISTIANITY 117 

its use is persevered in, it will most certainly land 
its victim in the grave, it will make and keep its 
devotee dog-poor. Before the drunkard stand 
rags, the alms-house, the potter's field; it will 
make one an outcast from society ; not even the 
society of beggars will tolerate the drunkard. I 
have given it up forever. I hope the Lord will 
keep me. ' ' This man soon left a good position 
in order to escape the evil, the temptation which, 
in that position, continually faced him. The 
last I heard of him he was still adhering to his 
principles. 

I AM right glad to hear of the triumph of the 
temperance cause among you and in other 
places near you. If there is any evil in the 
world which bears more truly and openly upon 
its very face the devil's black seal, I should like 
to know it. Of course you see much and hear 
more of this curse; but nothing compared to 
what I see and hear of it here, living about one 
and one-half miles from the city of Brooklyn 
with its 800,000 inhabitants; and about four 
and one-half miles from New York City, with its 
1,200,000. Here are men who stand ostensibly 
very high in the community, but with a character 



118 PEN PARABLES 

blackened by rum-selling; large brewers whose 
wealth gotten by their business is without limit. 
I just now think of one who a few years ago at a 
birthday celebration of himself, laid under the 
plate of each one of his eight children a check 
for $50,000. Another has risen from the lowest 
walks of life to untold affluence by his brewery. 
Such manufacture the poison by the wholesale, 
and then send it down to the saloons in every 
direction, which deal it out to the poor to keep 
them in poverty, to induce them to commit crime, 
and to lead them above all to neglect the best 
interests of their souls for time and eternity. 
What death dealers, what traffickers in human 
misery, vice and ruin ! I envy none of these rich 
dealers their gains. I would not take their place 
for all they are worth. I would not engage 
in their hellish traffic for all they could give me. 

I REJOICE and thank God, to hear that the 
last liquor saloon has been closed in your 
county. May the first one never again be opened. 
I learn from a temperance paper I take, that the 
good cause is rapidly gaining ground in many 
parts of our land. I wish I could say every saloon 



RUM AND CHRISTIANITY 119 

was closed in our county ! I pray that your ex- 
ample and that of many others prove of such 
practical benefit that the tide sweep with irresist- 
ible force over our entire land. 

IT was a source of great rejoicing and comfort 
to me, to learn of the great triumph of the 
temperance cause among you. I wish it could 
thus triumph here. The untold evil it is doing 
here, the sin, the misery, the crime, the poverty 
it is causing, no one can imagine. 

What a mean, low, sneaking, deceptive busi- 
ness is the liquor business ! Mean, low, black, not 
only in the seller, but in the manufacturer also. 
I have many sins to answer for, and have done 
many evil things, but, thank the Lord, I am no 
liquor manufacturer, no liquor-seller, no liquor- 
drinker. How any common-sensed, right-minded 
Christian man can advocate this black cause of 
the devil I know not — yet I do know of men who 
pretend to be common-sensed, right-minded, and 
Christian, advocating the cause, and giving their 
time, energy and means to its unholy advance- 
ment. But notwithstanding the liquor-manufac- 
turers' and the liquor-sellers' bold protestation 



120 PEN PARABLES 

of a non-accusing conscience in their unlawful 
trade, I yet believe they are under the continual 
ban of self-condemnation. I was a short time 
ago quite interested in the lengthy obituary of a 
very prominent man who died in the city of 
Brooklyn; he was worth some two millions of 
dollars. The most of this large fortune he made 
some years ago by the wholesale manufacture of 
whisky. His income was for a long time over a 
thousand dollars a day — this he himself told a 
friend of mine. While his merits were praised, 
and his church relations, and charity, and official 
positions were all carefully alluded to in the 
notice of his death, not one word was printed 
about his liquor business, and how he obtained 
his great wealth. Why was this withheld? Alas, 
his friends, his family, did not want his name 
or character connected with the liquor trade. It 
was too degrading, too condemning, too blacken- 
ing, and too odious a stigma upon what they 
wished to be considered a noble, upright, holy, 
commanding character. The liquor element 
throws a dark pall of condemnation over the 
fairest-seeming life. 



RUM AND CHRISTIANITY 121 

TEMPERANCE truth taught in the Sabbath 
School ought to go hand in hand with gos- 
pel truth. We cannot expect much from the old 
soaked drunkards, even though they may reform, a 
rum-blunted intellect, a rum-disintegrated phys- 
ique, a rum-weakened will, a rum-hardened con- 
science^ — all even in the very face of reform, 
leave but little for that reform to work upon and 
develop. But when we take early hold of the 
young, early educate them to hate, to antagonize 
the evil, what of good, of power, of moral victory 
may we not expect from such? Therefore we 
turn to these. ^ 

IN your letter you write about the triumph of 
the temperance cause in your own county 
and adjoining counties. A glorious triumph in- 
deed ! My heart was cheered in reading about 
it. I do hope and pray that the work has con- 
tinued to prosper and that to-day other of your 
adjoining counties are in the blessed ranks with 
you. Next to the spread of the holy religion of 
our Saviour over these counties, I can conceive of 
no greater blessing to their inhabitants than the 
spread of the temperance cause. 



122 



PEN PARABLES 



THE time is nearing when any advocacy at all 
of liquor by a professing Christian will not 
only raise a strong doubt as to his genuine con- 
version, but will make him liable to church dis- 
cipline. Indeed, I believe that soon, one impor- 
tant demand for admission to the Lord's Table 
will be the abstaining from intoxicating drink, 
and the promise neither to sell nor in any way 
directly or indirectly to advocate its use. May 
the church of Jesus be stirred to its very heart in 
this great matter ; and let our prayers to this end 
daily go up to our Lord. 






THE EARLY TRAINING 
OF CHILDREN 

]HE older I grow, the more deeply and 
seriously impressed do I become 
with the fact of the great necessity 
for the early religious education of 
the young. And this impression is the result of 
my own personal experience in my own individual 
case, and in the cases of multitudes who from in- 
fancy to manhood and womanhood have in the 
families I have known, in the Sabbath School, in 
the church, in the community, passed before me. 
With a heart naturally full of sin, and with an 
host of besetting sins continually knocking at my 
soul's door for admission, I can have no concep- 
tion of the extent in sin and rebellion against my 
Lord to which I must inevitably have been driven, 
but for the early religious education, and holy 
impressions made by the Spirit, through the faith- 
123 



124 PEN PARABLES 

ful teachings of my beloved mother. No mother 
could have been more persevering in her efforts 
and in her prayers, to instruct me in the truths of 
our holy religion. These truths were put before 
my mind in advance of every other truth. Before 
I could read, she had taught me by persevering 
repetition (for I was slow to learn) many most 
beautiful hymns. Early did they become the 
song-delight of my little heart, and although 
scores of years have passed over my head, they 
are flowing as freshly to-day as ever in sweet 
heavenly rapture-song through all my soul. 

TO instruct me in holy things was a consid- 
eration paramount to every other on my 
mother's part. She suffered not herself to be 
tempted and led astray by the fatal delusion 
which has been the wreck of so many youths, and 
the gray-haired sorrow of so many a foolish par- 
ent: that too strict attention to the religious 
education of a child to the exclusion of secular 
knowledge, would tend to make the young mind 
morose and the child awkward among its compan- 
ions ; an exile, even, from the social circle. To 
avoid all this, what multitudes of professedly 



EARLY TRAINING OF CHILDREN 125 

Christian parents have ignored the religious for 
the secular training of their loved ones! and 
under the tempting delusion that when their 
beloved became of riper years, and were educated, 
and, one might add, when their young hearts 
and minds were wholly carried away with worldly 
vanity, that then they, both parents and children, 
would give serious attention to religion. 

But oh ! how fatal the delusion ! I have lived 
long enough to see an overwhelming majority of 
those whose parents instructed them early in holy 
things, grow up godly men and women in our 
midst. On the other hand, what numbers I see 
whose parents and grandparents I knew, and 
remember for their utter indifference to the Word, 
to the church of God. They and their children 
were and are the enemies of the Cross of Christ. 
These parents are in many instances persons of 
social influence. They think the world of their 
children, spare no effort, no money, to educate 
and train them for the world, for society ; but 
alas, neglect the all-important matter — their early 
soul-education in the Word of Life. And so 
the evil runs often in genealogical line for gen- 
erations, verifying the truth of the blessed Word, 
"visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the 



126 PEN PARABLES 

children unto the third and fourth generation of 
them that hate me," and visiting the piety of 
the fathers upon their children unto the eternal 
generations of those who love him and keep his 
commandments. How far-reaching the holy life 
of the good ; how far-reaching the evil life of 
the wicked ! To what generations of holy descend- 
ants has the devout, godly life of some grandsire 
transmitted itself ! To what generations of fiend- 
ish diabolism has the wicked life of a forefather 
sent down its evil tide ! To what a great extent 
are we our brothers' keepers, and especially our 
children's keepers ! ^_ 

AS an instance of the benefits of early religious 
training, I would speak of an incident in 
my own youth. Although I was quite as wild 
as the generality of children, yet the holy teach- 
ings of my dear mother very early in life made 
deep impressions upon my heart. She did not 
then see the effect of those teachings, but I never- 
theless felt them; their power increased in my 
soul; strengthened my love for the good, and 
hatred to the evil. At length came the test. I 
now see what by the grace of God my mother's 
teachings did for me. I must have been about 



EARLY TRAINING OF CHILDREN 127 

thirteen or fourteen years old. In rummaging 
about a very dark portion of our garret, I found 
a beautiful rule. It lay upon a beam which sup- 
ported a portion of the roof. It had evidently 
been left there by one of the carpenters when the 
house was built, some sixty-five years before. At 
the time I found it a carpenter was working in 
my father's barn. I hastened to show him my 
prize. After looking at the rule he went to his 
coat, took out of the pocket a book, and placing 
it in my hand, said, " There, I will give you that 
book for the rule." I took the book, and on 
opening it, I saw it was one of the vilest which 
could possibly be placed in the hands of any 
person. At once the thought came to me: 
"What would my mother say if she saw such a 
book in my hand?" I indignantly handed the 
volume back to the wicked man, saying, "No, I 
will not do it — I will keep my rule. ' ' How ap- 
parent in this case the benefit of early religious 
tutelage ! But for the truth-seeds of the Word 
early sown by dear mother, how easily would I 
have fallen a prey to the evil one at the hands of 
one of his vilest minions ! 



128 



PEN PARABLES 



IN the case of a companion of my early days 
(a man of large intellectual ability and 
judge in one of our County Courts, but who had 
not professed Christ), as he was suddenly pros- 
trated by disease and died in a few hours, he 
said, when spoken to about his soul : ht Oh, I know 
all the truths of God's word ; I fully believe in 
them ; my mother taught them to me early in 
life." Long had the seed-truths sown by his 
faithful mother lain in his heart. That mother 
I well knew. She was one of the most godly 
women I have ever met. Long ago she went to 
her heaven home. 





THE SABBATH SCHOOL 




BELIEVE that wherever this insti- 
tution is established, its benefits of 
a double character are almost im- 
mediately felt — felt in the children, 
felt in the parents. The seeds of holiness sown 
in the hearts of the dear children, will early, in 
some way, produce holy fruit. There is on rec- 
ord the conversion of multitudes of parents 
through the instrumentality of their children 
having been religiously taught in the Sabbath 
School. ._ 

T SUPPOSE next to the church, the Sabbath 
■*■ School is the grand center of attraction among 
your people. Short indeed will be the spiritual 
life of that church which makes not the most 
ample provision for the religious education of its 
youth in the Sabbath School ! Dark and danger- 
ous is the future outlook for any church or com- 
129 



130 PEN PARABLES 

munity in which the religious education of the 
young is carelessly regarded. 

Those hordes now peopling many portions of 
our great West, being importations from foreign 
countries, have brought with them such loose no- 
tions regarding personal piety, Sabbath sanctity, 
church love, Bible orthodoxy, that little can be 
accomplished often among these in prevailing 
upon them to forsake the old beaten tracks of 
their ancestors ; and so, under God, the chief hope 
must rest with their children. 



YOU write of the numbers gathered in the 
Sabbath School. Blessed work ; wise, those 
engaged in it. Here is the foundation for the 
future prosperity of the mission ; here the strong 
hand of the Lord which shall eventually seize 
upon and hold the community for Christ. As 
the children are instructed in the truth, grow up 
in that instruction, come into the church, how 
far more efficient will their Sabbath School 
knowledge of truth make them in church work 
than those who never had the benefits of such 
teaching. 



THE SABBATH SCHOOL 131 

A DEAR scholar whom I taught more than 
thirty years ago has recently united with 
our church and will make a useful and godly 
man in the community. I know many in our 
place who left the Sabbath School unconverted, 
but are now in the ranks of Jesus laboring for 
him. The holy instructions early sown in their 
souls came back to them with power and they 
turned to the Lord. 



WHAT fruit of your labor in the Sabbath 
School are you already seeing! How 
many of those, already grown to manhood and 
womanhood who once were scholars in your school, 
are now Christians ! How many of the dear chil- 
dren, now scholars, are professing Christians! 
How many have recently felt the blessed change ! 
And so recently one sweet soul taken to the Sa- 
viour's bosom! Is there not great comfort and 
encouragement in all this for your heart? Even 
before you reach the heavenly fields and walk the 
golden streets, has the dear Lord permitted you 
to rejoice in seeing many, through your instru- 
mentality, led to the cross. Your labor in the 
Lord has not been in vain. The Master will not 



lm PEN PARABLES 

suffer to go unrewarded the least thing done for 
him. He may apparently long delay the bless- 
ing, but it will come ; and you will see it, will 
feel it, and will rejoice in it. 

ANOTHER great blessing, as I gather from 
your letter, is that many have been con- 
verted, and gone to unite with different churches. 
This is something far more encouraging than in- 
crease in numbers. To see those who have been 
taught in the Sabbath School publicly declare 
for Jesus, is the sure evidence to the faithful 
teacher that the Lord has owned his labors. And 
what should stimulate a teacher to greater zeal, 
what make his heart more thankful, and his soul 
more humble, than this? 

MUSIC IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

IT should be the endeavor of every church to 
gather into the Sabbath School every child 
in the congregation able to attend. 

To induce this attendance we have found sing- 
ing to be the grand means of entertaining, inter- 
esting and instructing our scholars. About the 
entertaining I need say nothing, for we know 



THE SABBATH SCHOOL 133 

that if anything will please and cheer the young 
it is music. As regards the instruction by means 
of hymns and music, I can conceive of no better 
way for bringing before the heart and mind the 
blessed truths — yes, the great fundamental truths 
and doctrines of the Word, than by having them 
in hymn form, and these hymns set to sweet music. 
Is it not as fitting to teach holy truth in song as 
in lesson? And as far as the impression is con- 
cerned, for me the holy hymn-song has the de- 
cided preference. 

THE SUNDAY SCHOOL THE STRENGTH 
OF THE CHURCH 

IN organizing a church and Sabbath School, 
it is often up-hill work for a long time — 
and especially with the Sabbath School ; for the 
scholars, even though converted when young, 
must grow up before they become of very extended 
use in the church ; but as they are gathered in 
from the Sabbath School from time to time, the 
strength of the church is greatly increased, and 
the prospect of its prosperity is made more and 
more certain. From those who come in late in 
life, and who perhaps never had Sabbath School 



134 PEN PARABLES 

training, there cannot reasonably be expected so 
much as from those who have had a thorough 
indoctrination in the truths of the Word in the 
Sabbath School. From a well-taught Sabbath 
School of thirty-five to forty scholars, what may 
not be expected in a very few years for the mis- 
sion? More than half of these before twenty 
years will likely become Christians. 

I QUITE long to hear from your Sabbath 
School. I suppose it has greatly increased 
in numbers during the past year, and that many 
of the dear scholars have, from this nursery of 
the church, been already planted into the garden, 
the church of the Lord. If they are neglected, 
the future of the church is written — failure. If 
cared for and instructed in our holy religion, the 
result is certain — success. 

A dear Christian friend, in Sabbath School 
work in Mississippi, wrote me a few days ago 
the following. (I quote his own words.) "God 
prospers us in our work, with our many children 
in the Sunday School. All of our young people 
in this community belong to the church ; brought 
to the Saviour in their childhood days by the aid 



THE SABBATH SCHOOL 



135 



of the Sabbath School. The school has been 
organized about nineteen years. ' ' 

GOD'S truth, like a good healthy seed, has in 
it the principle of divine and eternal life. 
When this seed is cast into good soil, its life- 
germ soon feels the influence of the surrounding 
elements. The young heart is the best of soil, 
and when impressed with holy truth, rarely fails 
at some future time in life to bring forth fruit to 
the glory of God. 

So teach the young. Sow the seeds of divine 
truth in their hearts. The Lord will watch over 
the seed — it is his own, and sooner or later it will 
spring up for fruitage to the glory of his holy 
name. We may not see the results ; but let us 
labor in faith, leaving results to our Heavenly 
Father. May you be greatly blest in your good 
work. 





LEARNING THE CATE- 
CHISM 




Dear Brother Henry: 

CCORDING to my promise, I send 
you two packets of religious tracts ; 
and also one Brown's catechism. I 
want you to study the catechism by 
heart ; and when you send me word that the whole 
of it has been committed to memory, and you can 
answer any question in it, I will send you a good 
book as a present. I do believe if you get all 
the holy truth contained in this little catechism 
in your heart and mind, you will know a great 
deal more of the Bible than multitudes who pro- 
fess to know much about it but who never studied 
this book. I would not for anything part with 
my knowledge of the catechism which my mother 
taught me. 

What is the catechism? It is in condensed 
136 



LEARNING THE CATECHISM 137 

form the great leading doctrines of the Word of 
God, not only for the use and instruction of chil- 
dren and Sunday School scholars, but for older 
persons ; indeed for all who have not in early life 
studied it. I call the catechism the key to the 
study of God's Word — the grammar of the Bible. 
No one can ever make me believe that the study 
of the catechism is not a wondrous help in ex- 
plaining and teaching Bible truth. If you will 
learn this little book by heart, you will find that 
I am right. ^_ 

TO early instruct the young in these great 
soul-saving, soul-enlightening truths of the 
dear Word, will, I believe, result in almost every 
instance in leading them early to the Saviour. 
Such seed of life will not long lie dormant and 
unproductive. God's power, God's energy, is in 
this truth, and it will stir the soul into which it 
is cast, to ask after the Lord, to seek him ; and it 
will result in finding him. 

I know, too, that converts who studied the cate- 
chism will make far more bright, intelligent, 
and energetic Christians than those who are ignor- 
ant of it. To be an intelligent Christian, to be 
enabled to give a reason for the hope that is in 



138 PEN PARABLES 

us, is what every Christian should aim at ; and 
this is what the inquiring world now demands ; 
the knowledge of the catechism will greatly aid 
in the supply of this want. 



BUT a short time ago a very learned and emi- 
nent Christian lawyer told me how he was 
once set upon by a Romish priest, and assailed 
as being a Protestant. My friend drew all his 
argument from his knowledge of the Heidelberg 
catechism, and in the end, so overcame the bold 
Romanist that he confessed his error, gave the 
hand of fellowship to my Christian brother, and 
urged him to call upon him and spend some time 
with him in Christian conversation. But for my 
friend's knowledge of the word of life, and of the 
great foundation truths of the gospel as drawn 
from his large acquaintance with the above named 
catechism, he would have been compelled to yield 
the victory to the Romanist. On another occasion 
my friend told me that had it not been for his 
knowledge of the catechism, he would have been 
compelled to give up another religious contest he 
had with a skeptical man of very large learning. 
He met and silenced all his arguments with those 



LEARNING THE CATECHISM 139 

Scripture truths and doctrines drawn from the 
living word as set forth in the catechism. 



THERE is much ignoring of the catechism at 
this day. Mr. Beecher did much to urge in 
laying it aside. I wish while he lived he had 
studied it very carefully, even the little Brown's 
catechism, to say nothing of the Heidelberg. He 
would have been more of a gospel preacher, and 
benefited his hearers more, spiritually; and it 
would have been an easier matter to know where 
to find him in theology. 

I HAVE one dear school (whites) in Lauderdale 
County, Mississippi, to whom I have for 
many years sent the Child's Papers, and to the 
pastor the Messengers. A little over a year ago 
I sent to this school Brown's Shorter Catechism 
— a most blessed and comprehensive summary of 
Bible doctrinal truth — with the promise that if 
any of the children would learn every answer per- 
fectly in the book, I would make each of them a 
present. About ten days ago, the pastor returned 
two names, and three days ago four more, with a 



140 PEN PARABLES 

request for more catechisms. The first two girls 
have already received their books. The pastor 
writes me: "Two such happy girls you never 
saw. ' ' The books to the others will go shortly. 



NOTHING whatever would I indorse in any 
catechism which would not stand the direct 
test of Scripture proof. So then, when I study a 
catechism drawn from the Bible, I am studying 
the Bible itself. 



HAD I my way I would make one single class 
of our Sabbath School, and first of all, 
have teachers and scholars commit to heart thor- 
oughly Brown's Shorter Catechism, then our old 
Heidelberg or the Westminster, and every Sab- 
bath till these catechisms were committed have 
interspersed Bible reading. Then would I feel 
and know, that teachers and scholars had some- 
thing to build on in advancing them to the higher 
grades of Scripture lessons. And I'll warrant 
that the results of such primary instruction in 
theology would not fail in early manifesting 
themselves in many conversions, and in a deep 
understanding of the Truth, and in great efficiency 



LEARNING THE CATECHISM 141 

rendered in the service of Christ on the part of 
those converted. 

SO deeply impressed were our good Christian 
forefathers with the necessity of a knowl- 
edge of the catechism that they almost doubted 
the genuine conversion of those who had never 
studied it. This certainly was too extreme, too 
strict ; however, I believe with them that the con- 
verts who had a knowledge of the catechism made, 
and will make, the brightest, most intelligent and 
most useful Christians. 

When this requirement shall become an ac- 
knowledged essential to youthful Christian edu- 
cation, then will we see stalwart Christians on 
every side. Then will the cause of the gospel be 
advanced to an infinitely higher standpoint and 
so the glory of the Lord set forth by a more united 
Christian zeal, and a more intelligent Christian 
brotherhood. Then will professors of Christian- 
ity be enabled to give a far more convincing evi- 
dence and a far stronger internal evidence of the 
hope that is in them. 





LETTERS TO THE YOUNG 

To Alfred Backus, 1 Oneida Mills, New York. 

Dear Alfred: 

OU can hardly think of my great joy, 
when your dear father wrote to me 
that you had learned the catechism 
perfectly, and were now looking for 
a prize for your study of this little book. And 
so now, in sending you the dear precious Bible, 
it gives me joy to send it, for three very good 
reasons: First, I promised it; second, you have 
earned it by committing the catechism to mem- 
ory ; third, a Bible was your choice. I love the 
blessed Bible, and for me to think that you de- 
sired me to send you what I most loved, and to 
send you what you most loved, filled my heart 
with joy. I do wish that every little boy when 



1 Now Rev. A. H. Backus, of La Grange, Indiana. 

142 



LETTERS TO THE YOUNG 143 

asked what book he would most like to have, 
would say, as you have said, * ' I want a Bible. ' ' 

I was also wonderfully rejoiced to hear that 
you had given your heart to the dear Saviour — 
taken him as your loving Friend — your Compan- 
ion for life. You could have done nothing better 
than this. To ever have our Jesus with us in our 
hearts will prove to be to us a continued joy-feast, 
a continued heaven-light shining in upon our 
souls, pointing us through life to duty, to useful- 
ness, to heaven. I hope the good Lord will put 
in your heart the earnest, longing, prayerful 
desire to study and preach his holy gospel. To 
preach this gospel is the highest greatness to 
which one can arrive on earth. To that blessed 
work I trust you will give yourself while youth is 
still bright. The good Shepherd rejoices with 
great joy over the lambs who follow closely in 
his footsteps. 

To the dear Saviour, who I know is heart-full 
with affection for the young who in early life 
give themselves to him, I commend you ; and pray 
that he may ever be most precious to you, and 
bring you at last to his bright, glorious, peaceful 
song-home in heaven. 



144 PEN PARABLES 

To Miss Jobu Tanaka, Ferris Seminary, Yoko- 
hama, Japan. 

My Dear Christian Girl: 

YOU can hardly think how pleased I was to 
receive your very kind letter, so well and 
plainly written. It shows by the writing and 
composition how carefully your kind teachers 
must have instructed you. To thus kindly teach 
you is to me great evidence of their interest in 
you, and love for you ; and shows above all, how 
they love your undying soul, and the dear Saviour 
for whose love to their own souls, and from their 
heart-love to him, they have left home and 
friends and this beautiful land, to tell the dear 
girls in Japan, and all the people, the precious 
story of the Cross. 

I know that you, and all the dear girls taught 
in the seminary, as you grow up Christians and 
go forth among your people, will hold up in your 
holy lives the shining lamp of Jesus' Word, that 
all who see may admire it, may love to sit in its 
glory, and ask to feel its power and pardon and 
saving grace in their own hearts. 

I am really glad that you have such kind, pleas- 
ant schoolmates — such a nice room — such good 



LETTERS TO THE YOUNG 145 

teachers. I know you thank the kind Lord for 
it all; for it is all his gift in answer to the 
prayers and labors of his Christian servants. 
How happy I feel that the little money I sent is 
doing you good. How I thank my heavenly 
Father that he gave me the money, and then 
allowed me the privilege of giving it to the Ferris 
Seminary. I thank the dear Saviour that Jobu 
is enjoying the benefits of my gift ; and I am glad 
through all my soul that I have a dear Christian 
girl in Japan to pray for, and one to pray for me. 
Yours in Christ, 

P. I. Neefus. 

To Clark V. Williams, New London, N. Y. 
My Dear Boy: 

YOU can hardly think how pleased I was to 
hear that you had perfectly committed the 
little catechism to memory. Yes — got it all in 
your mind, and I hope in your heart, too. If it 
is in your mind only I know it will prove a 
great good to you, for you will understand more 
than you ever did before of God, of the Bible, of 
yourself as a sinner with a soul that can never 
die; and understand something about how the 



146 PEN PARABLES 

dear Saviour, the Son of God, came to this earth 
and died to save poor sinners, such as I and you 
and all are, from eternal punishment. 

But a great deal better than only to understand 
something of these great truths, is to believe in 
them, and feel their power in your heart. No 
knowledge of Christ as a Saviour will do us any 
good for the saving of our souls, unless we feel 
that he is our Saviour — dwells in our hearts — 
and we love him to stay there, and would feel it 
a bitter disappointment, a very sore, sad bereave- 
ment, if he departed from us. Now if the dear 
Jesus is not already in your young heart, I do 
believe you want him there, and are asking him 
daily to come to you. I know this, because you 
want others to pray for you, because you feel that 
you would like to be baptized and to live a useful 
Christian life. 



To Miss Emily Swensen. 
Dear Emily: 

I HAVE frequently heard of you since you 
left this place, but not until a short time ago 
did I succeed in obtaining your address. 

Often do I think of the profitable, happy hours 



LETTERS TO THE YOUNG 147 

we spent in the dear Sabbath School in holy con- 
versation about our beloved Saviour, about our 
soul's highest interests. Earthly interests are im- 
portant, and we cannot pass through earth with- 
out being compelled to experience them and to 
take part in them, for they are, as it were, part 
of our earthly existence. But when we come to 
the consideration of our spiritual interests which 
connect us with eternity, and call us to the deep 
consideration of the great question : What is to 
be our eternity? then the earthly, compared there- 
with, becomes of little moment. 

If the dear service of Christ meant the taking 
away of every lawful joy, peace, comfort, and 
left his servant entirely destitute, forsaken, cast 
off and cast out, an exile in the earth, and called 
to endure the worst, it were better far to endure 
all this than to lose heaven. But the service 
of our Lord is not the taking away of joy, 
but the holy abounding in it ; not taking away 
peace of soul, but giving a holy peace that passeth 
all knowledge ; not the depriving of comfort, but 
the bestowal of a soul full of it. It means not 
destitution, forsaking, but plenty and friendship ; 
not cast off and cast out, but taken in and cared 
for ; not an exile, but one at home and protected 



148 PEN PARABLES 

in the Father's house ; not one called to endure 
the worst, but to possess and enjoy the best. 
Thus with Jesus in his soul, his beloved are even 
here on earth permitted to so enjoy his presence 
and companionship, that there may come to them 
blessed foretastes of that which is to be revealed 
to them hereafter, when they shall have passed up 
into their glory home. There is indeed much of 
sight for the Lord's beloved here below, faith 
with much of the reality of what is to be to stim- 
ulate faith, hope intermingled with much of 
fulfilled hope to encourage a stronger hope, holy 
longing for heavenly blessedness with an oft reali- 
zation of something of that bliss in order to 
increase the longing. 

Dear Alfred: 

YOU cannot imagine how delighted I was to re- 
ceive your picture. I could not cease look- 
ing at you for a long time, and since its first recep- 
tion to the present time, again and again have I 
taken it up to study your good face. And now 
I suppose you would like to know what my study 
of your likeness has been about? Three thoughts 
were prominent in my mind when I took the first 



LETTERS TO THE YOUNG 149 

look at you : First — this is the noble boy who 
committed to memory the shorter catechism I sent 
him. In connection with this knowledge of holy 
truth, I well know how his mind must be enlight- 
ened and his heart benefited. No greater mind- 
strengthener and heart-purifier and sanctifier can 
possibly be found than a knowledge of and love 
for the truths of God's word. 

The second thought was : This is the noble boy 
who when he had committed the catechism, de- 
sired as a reward for his labor, a Bible. Wise 
choice. No better book could you have asked. 
No better could I have sent. Nor in the sending 
of any other gift, could I have been better pleased. 
No word is like God's word, in wisdom, in purity, 
in holiness. I often think of a little story I heard 
about a man who was ever committing Bible 
verses to memory. When he was asked why he 
did so, he said, "My memory is a part of my 
soul. When my soul goes into eternity, I ex- 
pect to take my memory with me, and what better 
can I fill it with than the blessed truths of the 
dear Bible?" — Was he not right? I think he 
was. 

And then, the third thought which came to me 
was: "This is the picture of a dear boy who in 



150 



PEN PARABLES 



early life has given his heart to Jesus, and pro- 
fessed him before the world." How I love to 
look upon your face, and to think, "that is the 
face of a Christian boy. ' ' How I love to think : 
66 In that body, growing up to manhood so rapidly, 
beats a heart of love for Jesus. ' ' And then I say 
to myself: "No wonder his eyes are bright, his 
youthful face so pleasing, his memory strong, his 
mind bright and clear ; for within him there is a 
glorious spirit which cannot but thus manifest 
itself." 

Your dear father wrote me in his last letter 
that you were hard at work learning the larger 
catechism. It is a most blessed collection of holy 
truth ; and cannot but prove a great benefit to 
any who will study it. Your reward is ready 
when I get word that you have committed it to 
memory. I would send you my picture, but have 
only one in my album at present. Kindest re- 
gards to father and mother. 

In Christian love, 

P. I. Neefus. 





ISrSO' T^P^L 



EARLY GATHERED 

HE first part of your last letter to me 
is both sad and joyous. Sad, be- 
cause of the bereavement you all 
have been called to bear in the loss 
of the dear little girl. Sad, because of a tender 
young life giving so large a promise of useful- 
ness, so early filled with the love of the Master, 
yet so early and suddenly cut off. The joyous 
part is the happy death of the loved one, singing 
herself into glory. It is seldom we hear of such 
rapture in the little ones as they depart. Oh, 
how her happy death speaks louder than a thou- 
sand tongues for the truth and reality of our 
blessed religion ; for in this dear child of such 
tender age there could be no pretense, no decep- 
tion, no nervous excitement. Her joy was the 
indwelling of the blessed Spirit, her song the out- 
burst of her happy soul. It was the rapture of 
heaven, before she left the body. A rapture- 
151 



152 



PEN PARABLES 



song never more to cease. Her happy death 
was Jesus saying: " Behold how the little ones 
come unto me: of such is the Kingdom of 
Heaven. ' ' 





CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 




O truth is comparable to religious 
truth. Secular stories, secular 
truths, may interest and instruct 
the mind, but first and foremost, 
and at the head of all, is the sacred fountain 
of soul-uplifting, soul-cheering, soul-illuminating 
truth which reveals the divine mind and the 
divine heart; truth which leads the sinner to 
see, to feel his sin, and then to betake himself to 
the Saviour of sinners. 

The science, the literature of earth, considered 
in itself and in its effect upon the soul of man, 
sinks into insignificance when brought face to 
face with the Word of Life. To study the depths 
of other minds in science is to merely comprehend 
what they comprehended ; and when we have done 
this we have fathomed their depths ; but to study 
the divine mind, is to open a mine of holy wealth, 
of sacred treasure, of priceless gems, which in- 
153 



154 PEN PARABLES 

crease in value, in beauty, as we descend into the 
depths of this blessed treasure-house. And the 
glory of all is, we can never exhaust that which 
is Infinite. «g 

AS secondary to, and in aid of the preaching 
of the gospel, I have of late been more 
deeply impressed than ever with the great neces- 
sity of spreading sacred literature among old and 
young, and especially among the young. I think 
there has been a general awakening in this direc- 
tion during the past few years. 

The book-stores are now loaded with sacred 
volumes, which are wholly based upon the Word 
of Life, and so they contain truth-seeds vitalized 
by the eternal Spirit, and which as they drop 
from those holy boughs of religious story in print 
and in illustration, will not fail sooner or later 
to show themselves in a godly life. 

I OFTEN think what great responsibility is 
laid upon the Christian to disseminate the 
gospel truth, as the means in so many forms and 
ways cluster about him, and constantly appeal to 
his liberality, his zeal, his love for the Master. 



CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 155 

THERE are now many places to which I make 
donations, some west, some east, some north, 
some south ; one being in Rosario de Santa Fe, 
Argentine Confederation. 

Nearly all my mission work (as I would term 
it) has been carried on through the medium of 
the Tract House. Mr. R. C. Loesch, who re- 
cently died, was one of my most intimate friends 
— a most efficient man in his position ; a Christian 
brother for whom I had formed the warmest at- 
tachment. The kind, gentle Dr. Shearer is a 
particular friend and counselor of mine, as well 
as the very able Christian scholar, Dr. Rand. 



MANY, I know, make but little account of 
religious papers, and care but little for 
them after they are read ; but we send our papers 
after reading to some person whom we think they 
would be likely to benefit. I always think that 
in destroying a religious book or paper or tract 
we may hinder some Christian heart being in- 
structed, cheered or comforted, or some sinner 
from being awakened and brought to Christ. 
There are many instances on record where souls 
have been converted by the reading of some tract 



156 PEN PARABLES 

or even part of a tract which has happened to fall 
in their way. The Word of the Lord always 
carries a power with it, and no person can read it 
or hear it read but will in some way be moved. 

TO CHRISTIAN WRITERS 

IT has pleased the Master, in granting to thee 
the full retention of all thy mental faculties, 
and these sanctified by his Spirit, and thus made 
his blessed servants, to so use them in committing 
thy holy thought to writing that multitudes in 
every direction may be profited thereby. How 
have these Spirit-indited letters and beautiful 
verses been the means of cheering the desponding, 
of comforting the sorrowing, of strengthening the 
weak, and of giving patience to the tried ! And 
who could write with more force and power and 
benefit to such than one who himself was upon 
the testing-rack, and in the trial-heat? And who 
could more commend the dear Saviour to all 
such, than he who had experienced the most lov- 
ing, tender and intimate communion with him? 
How often have these letters strengthened the 
faith of thy Christian friends; and how often 
been a wholesome rebuke to them in their care- 



CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 157 

lessness and neglect of holy duty, and their in- 
gratitude to the Lord for his blessings to them of 
health and strength ; a rebuke for want of holy 
faith and trust because of the little trivial per- 
plexities and annoyances of life, which, all to- 
gether, would bear no comparison with the least 
of thy sufferings ! ^~ 

I WAS much pleased with the articles "Some- 
thing New for Easter" and "What is the 
Use of Praying?" There are many good 
thoughts in both — thoughts which indicate a 
heart of deep love for, and a blessed soul-com- 
panionship, with the dear Redeemer ; without such 
love and companionship you could not have 
written them. No field in the whole range of 
literature or science opens so broad, so beautiful, 
so attractive an arena for the most healthful de- 
velopment of the mental faculties, for the purest, 
sweetest, most elevating exercises of the soul. 

YOU mentioned with reference to your wri- 
tings of poetry and prose, that you were 
collecting them with the view of having them 
published in book form. I should be very much 



158 PEN PARABLES 

pleased to read any one of these books when pub- 
lished, and hope you will remember me, and send 
at my expense the first printed volume. 

Every printed religious volume and tract is an 
offset in the balance against the multitudes of 
iniquitous books which are almost continually 
coming forth from the Satan-ruled, whose de- 
praved souls and Christ-despising minds rejoice, 
for the love of the evil which is in them and for 
pecuniary profit, to lead souls to ruin for this 
world and the next. 



Dear Christian Sister: 

WHEN your suggestive letter arrived, and in 
it you spoke of the little pocket- jewels, 
' ' Daily Food, ' ' and of pocket Testaments, I felt 
quite comforted that I knew what to do. I saw 
at once that two more appropriate gifts than these 
precious little volumes could not be made to a 
young or an old convert. They are the Word of 
our dear Jesus and daily accompanying "food" 
drawn therefrom, and put in form for the Chris- 
tian heart of young or old. How I thank you 
for your helpful suggestion ! I feel that the dear 
ones will in those precious volumes find all that 



CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 159 

food for soul that will be a blessed comfort to 
their new-born hearts — a heavenly support for 
their souls. 

DROPPING THE SEED-TRUTHS 

I HOPE the children will carefully and profit- 
ably read the Child's Paper. It is a blessed 
little paper and contains rich spiritual food for 
young and old. I send these papers in every di- 
rection, and hear most encouraging reports about 
them. 

With regard to the Messengers, I will send you 
the twenty copies for the remainder of this year. 
This is also a most excellent religious monthly 
paper. Almost every number contains short 
articles from some of the best writers in this 
country. It has been the means of doing great 
good in the world. 

SECOND, I was rejoiced to hear from you that 
the library I had sent you had been safely 
received ; and had caused so much enthusiasm in 
the Sabbath School. 

While I do not indulge in spending my money 
for foolish luxuries or for earthly pleasures, I am 



160 PEN PARABLES 

certain I get a thousandfold more joy of heart and 
real comfort of soul, sent me by my very dear 
Lord, than those can ever get, or even imagine, 
who recklessly spend their means for that which 
satisfieth not. 

The joy of a lasting good is a lasting joy. If 
but one holy truth-seed of the thousands in this 
library shall fall into some poor soul and spring- 
ing up bear fruit to the glory of the Saviour, 
what a glorious work will have been accomplished 
by my little gift. 

I count it one of the especial granted privileges 
of the dear Lord. ^ 

I AM much rejoiced to learn that the dear chil- 
dren who had raised a considerable sum as 
you wrote me in your last, have persevered until 
now they have a good library. Did you receive 
the Tract Society's catalogues? There is great 
risk in purchasing Sunday School libraries for 
children, lest the books be often of doubtful char- 
acter. The books published by the Tract Society 
are carefully selected and may be depended upon ; 
and, I think, are fully as cheap as can be obtained 
elsewhere. — 



CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 161 

Camden, N. J., Dec. 10, 1889- 
Dear Brother Neefus : 

I AM sure the Amerikanisher Botschafter has 
been doing his portion of good in my field. 
He reaches many families who do not reach the 
church, and they are the kind who need his visit. 
If not asking too much of you, the renewal of 
the sixty copies will be acceptable. They will be 
judiciously, conscientiously distributed. Wish- 
ing you health, 

I remain yours, with high esteem, 

Rev. Chas. H. Schwarzbach. 

Dear Brother Schwarzbach: 

IT gives me much pleasure to learn from your 
letter that the Botschqfters are doing a good 
work among you. I know these religious papers 
are full of such reading as will be profitable to 
all who will peruse them. Many no doubt read 
these papers, who seldom read the Bible. If 
they will not study the Word itself, but will take 
in hand these Christian truths, there is yet large 
hope for them ; for some timely word may touch 
their hearts, and so lead them to go to the foun- 
tain head — the Word. 



162 PEN PARABLES 

I HOPE the little library and books will all 
prove a great blessing to the scholars — in- 
deed, I know it is so doing, for you write me that 
your school was never in a better condition. 
How the dear Lord has blessed you, in permitting 
you to see the prosperity of your labors for him. 
This is one of the surest evidences of his accept- 
ance of thee and of thy work. And I know thy 
heart goes out in gratitude and thanksgiving 
to him for all his favors. 



IT is very encouraging to me to learn that the 
papers, copies of the Word I have by the 
Lord's favor been permitted to send to you, have 
done and are doing great good. I am very grate- 
ful to you for your helping letter ; it is a stimulus 
to my zeal, a comfort, a joy to my heart. 



AS in response to your kind request, I felt it 
a duty not only, but a heaven-granted 
privilege to send these religious periodicals to 
you, so I pray that your dear people will feel it 
a cheerful duty and a heavenly privilege to read 
and profit spiritually by them. I know that 



CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 163 

many a timely word in these papers will awaken 
an increased interest in holy things in many a 
Christian soul, will lead to a more thorough life- 
consecration to the Saviour, will stir a deeper feel- 
ing of holy love in the heart, will lead to the 
continued utterance of the importunate prayer: 
* ' Master, help me to glorify thee ; make me in- 
creasingly useful in thy service!" To thus stir 
one or more Christian hearts, is to bring new life, 
new energy into the prayer-meeting, the church, 
the Sabbath School, the community. I know that 
the Sunday School papers will contain many an 
article, many a picture-illustration, which will pro- 
duce holy and lasting impressions upon these little 
hearts. 

DISTRIBUTING TRACTS 

I OFTEN picture to my mind the scene when 
Christ beheld the people casting their gifts 
into the Lord's treasury. Many rich men cast in 
much, but the poor woman who threw in her mite, 
the all she had, Jesus declared, gave more than 
all the rest, for her gift was the result of heart- 
devotion to her Lord. A little tract is often 
more blest to a soul than a sermon ; in it is his 
Spirit, and the Spirit of the Lord is the spirit of 



164 PEN PARABLES 

quickening, of penitence, of conversion, of salva- 
tion ; and nothing can resist it. 

ABOUT the first of January, 1888, I adopted 
the plan of enclosing a religious tract in 
every letter I mailed. My correspondence is very 
large, and I have already sent great numbers of 
these little messengers in this way. From some 
persons I have received blessed communications 
in regard to the pleasure they received in reading 
them. With others, these tracts have brought me 
into pleasant and profitable communion. I hope 
the day is not distant when every Christian mer- 
chant and correspondent will have a bundle of 
these religious, evangelical, unsectarian tracts 
upon his office-desk, and shall not fail to en- 
close one in every letter he writes. I believe the 
resultant effects for good would be unspeakably 
great. 

THE multiplication and spreading of gospel 
truth through the agency of the press, and 
the carrying of that truth into almost every house 
and to almost every eye and ear in Christendom, 



CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 165 

has more holy design and meaning in it than we 
often think. 

If men will not go to the house of God to hear 
the gospel, the Lord, in his deep interest in and 
his love for the poor sinner, sends the gospel to 
him, or meets him with the message in some form, 
by tract or missionary upon the highway — goes 
by a tract or a Testament or one of his servants 
into the very haunts of the sinner's wickedness 
and crime. No obstacle which would hinder the 
poor soul from being warned to "flee from the 
wrath to come" is left unsurmounted, and hence 
he can make no excuse if he dies in his sin. 



AND now I think I will give Mr. William a 
little to do. I will send a package of sin- 
gle-leaf tracts to distribute among your people 
when they are gathered in the meeting, or just as 
they are coming out. Now if you will do this 
for Jesus, I know he will give yota a blessing in 
your own heart. And then how many precious 
souls with the Lord's blessing may also be con- 
verted through these tracts. And so good will 
come to all. 

Let your dear wife help you in the good work. 



166 PEN PARABLES 

I tell you the Lord will so reward you and bless 
you that I believe in a short time you will send 
for more tracts. 

I PR AY that the tract, "The Miller's Son," 
which I sent you, and which you gave your 
son, will have a blessed effect upon him. I am 
glad to learn from your letter that he is not like 
very many who do not believe, in that he is will- 
ing to read about holy things, to reason about 
them, to think about them. The soul which does 
not believe and trust in the precious atonement of 
Jesus is its own worst enemy. To ridicule the 
holy religion of Jesus, is not to do so much harm 
to others as it is to do harm to self. 



I RECEIVED recently a letter from a friend in 
Virginia to whom I had written a letter, and 
in which I enclosed two little tracts, entitled " Old 
John is dead, I am new John." Said he: "The 
two little tracts, 'Old John,' etc., I found enclosed 
in your letter, I gave to two girls. They were the 
means of their conversion. Little did you think 
that such would be the blessed result of your send- 
ing these little books. ' ' 



CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 167 

Every letter which leaves my hand carries with 
it a leaflet-tract or two. 

From many persons, and some not professing 
Christians, I have received a most cordial recog- 
nition of the benefits derived from them — one, I 
remember, from a Roman Catholic with whom I 
had business relations. I believe every Christian 
merchant could adopt this plan, and without in- 
jury, but the rather, with profit to his business. 
And I believe every Christian merchant should 
in this way as well as in other ways show 
forth his Christian colors. 



I BELIEVE Christians are becoming more and 
more awake to the employment of this means 
in spreading the gospel. This is evident by the 
marvelous demand continually made at the pub- 
lication houses for them. Of this I know much 
in connection with my large business transactions 
and my very frequent calls at the American 
Tract Society's Rooms, 150 Nassau Street, New 
York City. I believe there is more of religious 
tract-sending at this day throughout our own dear 
land and throughout the world than ever before ; 
tracts sent in letters, packages, distributed by the 



168 



PEN PARABLES 



faithful everywhere. The Lord's child need not 
want for work in the Master's vineyard, if he is 
inclined to work; for he can go to the Tract 
House and for a few cents get a measure of gos- 
pel truth-seed in the shape of tracts, and go forth 
into the world sowing it in every direction. A 
tract will go where the minister of the gospel 
does not go, to men who perhaps never hear the 
preached Word ; to eyes and hands and ears which 
had never read, heard, or handled the Word itself. 
They call sinners to turn to Jesus and be saved, 
who, until the little messenger came to them, had 
never been appealed to. 






THE TRACT HOUSE, 
NEW YORK 

AM often lost in wonder when I enter 
the Tract House in New York City 
and see on every side of me the 
abundant supply of God-provided 
means, in religious literature ever ready there to 
go forth to do the Lord's work in the earth — and 
this granary, this store-house of soul-food, but 
one of the hundreds to be found in the earth. 
Here is spiritual sustenance suited to every ca- 
pacity of the learned and of the unlearned. The 
theologian will not come here in vain to seek 
works of the highest intellectual profit in the 
realm of the religious, and of the deepest soul- 
love in the realm of the spiritual. The ignorant 
can here find the pure teachings of the Word of 
Life so plainly set forth that even with the dull- 
est apprehension he cannot fail to understand. 
The child can find sweet heaven-blossoms here — so 
169 



170 PEN PARABLES 

pure, so lovely, so fragrant with celestial perfume, 
that even in the handling as well as in the reading 
the little soul will never forget their holy beauty. 

Here the wealthy may store their libraries, 
their parlors, their studies with the most beau- 
tiful works of religious art. Not less may the 
poor find manna in such form, in such quantity, 
in such soul-satisfying- quality and at such a price 
that they shall not have it to say, ' ' I cannot afford 
it' ' ; or if they really cannot afford it, that they 
cannot get it for nothing. Here he who would 
glorify his Master in doing good, can find holy 
truth in such shape, at such price and in such a 
way that he cannot leave this treasure- vault, say- 
ing, ' * I could find nothing within the reach of my 
means to send forth on a mission for my Saviour. ' ' 

And what do I see in this inexhaustible store? 
All this holy provision is an exhibition of the 
abundant means of grace mercifully provided by 
the heavenly Father, so that no room may be left 
for any soul to say, * ' I starve for the ' Bread of 
Life. ' ' ' No Christian man or woman shall be 
enabled to frame any excuse whatever for not, 
according to his opportunity, great or small, aid- 
ing in the Lord's work in spreading the truth- 
seeds of the living Word. 




CHRISTIAN LETTERS 




HE Christian who can pen but one 
comforting thought to a brother in 
trial, but one sentence of warning 
to an impenitent friend, cannot fail, 
if he will but sincerely seek and ask, to find both 
the thought and the friend ; nor in the doing will 
he fail in both imparting and receiving a rich 
blessing. And he will also find that these ways 
of approach through the medium of correspond- 
ence are the only ones by which he can at all 
reach many. They are the only source of appeal 
to an impenitent friend. 

Many years ago, in my youthful diffidence in 
addressing my friends and companions on the 
subject of personal religion, I adopted the plan 
of writing letters to them. I cannot recall a sin- 
gle instance of any one of these letters having 
been received or ever answered in a hostile spirit. 
In almost every instance, sooner or later, those 
171 



172 PEN PARABLES 

written to publicly professed Christ. From some 
of those who were moved in the direction of good 
by these letters, most blessed answers were sent 
me in return. — 

IN no direction I can conceive of is holy stim- 
ulating encouragement so needed as among 
God's little flock, in their aggressive warfare 
against the giant power of evil. To speak often 
one to another, to pray often one with and for 
another, to write often one to the other, cannot 
but prove a mighty Christian impulse among the 
brethren to holy perseverance in the Christian life. 

I ESTEEM it a great privilege to converse face 
to face with God's own people. And if I 
cannot do this, to hold communion with them in 
writing. Many loved friends have I whom I have 
never seen, but from their Christian letters to me 
I know that they love my Saviour, and when I 
write to them I seem to be speaking face to face 
with them — we are one in Christ. I know how 
the Lord's children feel — I know something of 
their joys, their sorrows, their trials, their temp- 
tations, their struggles with their sinful hearts. 



CHRISTIAN LETTERS 173 

I know how the world would overthrow them if it 
could; rob them of their hope, their joy, their 
heaven. I know how the jLord's people pray, and 
in answer to prayer how k they are upheld and 
blest — how God's grace makes them proof 
against the arrows of Satan. And so, knowing 
all this, I know how to write to my brothers and 
sisters in Christ. ^g 

I AM often annoyed with the worldly corre- 
spondence of men who spin out great long 
senseless letters — often the overflow of a vacant 
mind and a world-loving spirit. I always glance 
over such missives as rapidly as possible, and 
often do not read them at all. If I am compelled 
to answer them, it is in a very brief manner. 
But when I receive Christian letters, then I re- 
joice, and the longer they are, the better. I read 
them over twice on receiving them, lay away for 
a short time — read them again, and then care- 
fully file them. ^_ 

Dear Brother Low: 

MY first letter for 1888 I now begin to you, 
and it is quite natural that I should thus 
do, for you are one of the first of my correspond- 



174 PEN PARABLES 

ents in the blessed work to which a few years 
ago I set my hand, directed by the heavenly 
Master in answer to my prayer — the work of dis- 
tributing religious truth. The number to whom 
I now send the messages of life has increased to 
about twenty-two. How I have ever had this 
number brought to my attention, and been per- 
mitted to aid them in holy things, the Saviour 
only knows. He has sent them to me, and me to 
them. ^ 

DURING the past year many have written me 
about Sabbath School prosperity — many 
about missionary work — many others about their 
church organizations and church work — still 
others about their personal experience in their 
labors. And among my correspondents are quite 
a number who have written me concerning their 
individual soul-exercises in religious things ; some 
on the holy mount of heavenly rapture, others in 
the dark mazes of trembling, fear and doubt. 
Many have written of the great goodness of the 
Master to them through a long period of years — 
many expressing their joyous hope in the Saviour, 
and their assurance of salvation. Many have 
asked words of comfort in their sorrows over the 



CHRISTIAN LETTERS 175 

loss of their dear ones — many have written long 
and most blessed letters from sick-beds and sick- 
rooms ; and others have written to me who were 
in great anxiety about their souls; desirous of 
coming to the truth, and living for Jesus. 

I find by the interchange of holy thought a 
soul-comfort, a heart-cheer, a faith-strength, a 
love-zeal, and a Christ-communion, all which I 
would not have had in such intense abundance 
had it not been for the use of these holy means. 
Also I find that my memory has been strength- 
ened, new vigor has been given to my thoughts, 
and a higher intellectual sphere has been attained, 
all the blessed result of so frequently correspond- 
ing about holy matters with the people of God. 

During the busy season up to the present I have 
not written much save to two or three dear Chris- 
tians who are confirmed invalids : one, whom I 
have never seen, residing in Virginia, a poor suf- 
ferer who has for nearly fourteen years been more 
or less confined to his house, and during the 
greater portion of this long period in intense 
suffering. It affords me great pleasure to write 
to him, for his letters in return are full of praise 
to the dear Saviour for his abounding mercy to 
him. "What would I do without my Lord?" is 



176 PEN PARABLES 

his oft-expressed feeling. And so he is joyfully 
abiding the Master's time, waiting patiently till 
he who is his life shall appear, that he also may 
appear with him in glory. 

The other dear brother to whom I often write 
is a resident of Brooklyn. He has, up to this 
time, been about seven years in his room. He is 
a great sufferer, bent almost double by his pains. 
The Christian letters I frequently receive from 
him are marvels of holy thought and communion 
with the dear Saviour. 

I have known this dear brother for some twelve 
or thirteen years. Our Christian fellowship has, 
during that long period, been of the most inti- 
mate and reciprocal soul-edification. He is a 
man of great intellectual attainment, of marvel- 
ous power of memory, and — glory to our beloved 
Jesus for his sweet religion — behind all his in- 
tellectual greatness, is the simple, calm, abiding 
faith of a little child. The conversation and 
letters of this holy man of God have wonderfully 
strengthened my at times feeble faith, and often 
in my hours of dejection have reproved me for 
my ingratitude to my Lord for his blessings. 
Often have I said to myself: "What, I dejected 
while the Master has sent me so many blessings, 



CHRISTIAN LETTERS 



177 



such health, such prosperity, and this poor brother 
— he is very poor in this world's goods — so cheer- 
ful in the very furnace of bodily affliction? Un- 
grateful one I am!" And in this thought, I 
have often taken new courage, and received new 
cheer. 



, ^g^ ^^'.' , Vi'*.^i ' r ' Bag 




MEMORY AND SCRIPTURE 






RGE your people to store their mem- 
ories full of the truths of God's 
Word. And why should they do 
this? I will answer by relating a 
little anecdote I heard some years ago of a dear 
child of God. He was ever committing verses 
and chapters of the Word to memory, and when 
one day asked why he did this his ready answer 
was : ' ' My memory is part of my soul ; when I go 
into the eternal world, my memory will go with 
me, and be with me forever ; and what better use 
can I make of it now than to store it with the 
blessed truths of the dear Word of Life?" 

How wise it is to crowd the soul full of the 
living Word— so full that nothing less noble can 
enter in ! What wisdom, what light, what joy, 
what peace, what holy direction, what blessed 
communion with the Father, what holy compan- 
ionship with the Saviour, will such ever have! 
178 



MEMORY AND SCRIPTURE 179 

In direct antithesis to all that the world calls 
great in intellectual worth, merit, and expansion 
of thought, and of what the world lauds as great 
in word or deed, we place the Word of the Lord ; 
a Word which is vitalized by his Holy Spirit, and 
that Spirit eternal, omniscient; a Word whose 
thought is the thought of the Eternal Mind ; that 
Mind which is the Father-Mind of all mind ; that 
Mind whose comprehension soars infinitely above 
the highest, the holiest thought of man ; the Mind 
which framed the universe, which designed us so 
"fearfully and wonderf ully , ' ' and then breathed 
itself into man and made him an immortal soul. 



I GREATLY rejoice that early in life my dear, 
now sainted mother, led me to feel the im- 
portance of committing hymns and Bible verses to 
memory. I have never forgotten them ; for every 
trial, every sorrow, every temptation, every gloom, 
every despondency, every labor, every duty, every 
fear, I always find in my memory some hymn or 
verse of a hymn, some chapter or verse of a chap- 
ter. And I am trying day by day to add to my 
memory stock, these good things ; oh, how they 
help me ! — 



180 PEN PARABLES 

I KNOW that if those dear girls in your Sun- 
day School who have committed so many 
scripture verses to memory are not now Christians, 
they soon will be, for so much holy truth in any 
mind will not fail at some time to spring up, and 
bear fruitage in holy lives. May many of the 
dear children be stimulated by these examples, to 
commit the Word to memory. 



* 



YOU write about the dear Word of God I 
gave you ; how you read it and care for it. 
I hope you will read it every day, and learn 
many verses by heart, so that when during the 
day you are at your work, you can think over 
them in your mind. Thus, when you get the 
truths of God's Word in your soul, you will be 
likely to think more and more of him ; you thus 
will be kept nearer to the Saviour ; you will be 
better able to keep out of evil, and better pre- 
pared to talk of the Saviour to others. To fill 
the mind with God's truth, is to have poured into 
it a holy light ; is to have laid out before it a 
heavenly chart, and a heaven-magnetized compass, 
guided by which the child of God shall surely at 



MEMORY AND SCRIPTURE 181 

length reach and anchor in the haven of eternal 
glory. 

YOUR deep love for the precious Word, as 
set forth in your letter, has led me to de- 
vote the burden of my thought, in this epistle, to 
this subject. And what subject could form a 
more blessed theme for thought, open a wider 
field, or invite a higher soaring of the intellect? 
And what theme calculated to more stir the emo- 
tions of the soul, the love of the heart and the 
joy of the Spirit? And what theme of more 
vital interest to a poor sinful, dying creature, 
and yet an immortal being, than that which opens 
the door of God's love to the perishing and bids 
them enter into his heart's affections through the 
atonement of Jesus? And what theme more 
blessed than that through which the heaven-rays 
of love, of pardon, of guidance and salvation 
stream from the eternal throne upon the pathway 
of the regenerate soul? 





DR. ANTHON 




To Mr. William S. Sloan, New York City. 

SUPPOSE I am very many years your 
senior, according to the dates of our 
graduation from Columbia. I grad- 
uated in 1854, while the old college 
buildings were yet standing at the foot of Park 
Place (I think). I was under the very rigid dis- 
ciplinarian and exacting classical professor, Dr. 
Anthon. I never made much progress or display 
in his department, for, being of naturally a diffi- 
dent disposition, he generally frightened every- 
thing out of me, before I had a chance, or could 
collect composure, to recite. Dr. Anthon, I be- 
lieve, was the giant classical scholar of his age, 
and holds his own to this day as such. He was a 
giant physically and intellectually. The classical 
work of his life is simply mammoth, and all of 
the highest order. It is a burning shame that a 
history of his life and classical labors has not 
182 



DR. ANTHON 183 

long ere this been given to the public. It would 
form a most interesting work for students and 
professors. I largely charge Professor Drissler 
for the want of such a volume. Dr. Anthon 
took the deepest interest in him. They labored 
for years together (especially on Liddell and 
Scott's Greek-English Dictionary, edited by Pro- 
fessor Drissler). No person better knew Dr. 
Anthon than Professor Drissler. It is a culpable 
neglect of duty to a friend, and an evidence of 
ingratitude to a most worthy benefactor, as was 
Dr. Anthon to Professor Drissler, that in some 
substantial eulogy the latter has not faithfully 
memorialized the studiousness, the classical great- 
ness, the attractiveness of his private character, 
his methodical life, and dignified, gentlemanly 
bearing. If you are very intimate with Professor 
Drissler, I hope you will not fail to probe him 
on this point. ^_ 

I OFTEN think how, when in old Columbia 
College, that rigid, stern, exacting discipli- 
narian, Dr. Charles Anthon, called upon me to 
recite in Greek or Latin; all of my poor self 
seemed to take flight, and my recitation was to 
me a kind of shadowy journey or dreamy somno- 



184 PEN PARABLES 

lence out of the body, and I only returned to 
consciousness when I emerged from the classic 
and heavy atmosphere of his lecture-room out into 
the cheery, pure, invigorating air of the college 
campus. As I am now turning the scale at sixty, 
although my physical health is excellent, I feel 
this sense of diffidence rather increasing than 
abating. I sometimes dream at night that I am 
at the recitation-desk in Dr. Anthon's room, and 
then from the excitement suddenly awakening. No 
one can imagine what a sense of joy and gratitude 
I feel from the fact that it is only a dream. 

I WAS told by a classmate of mine, who after 
his graduation from Columbia College, was 
first employed as instructor in Latin, and then as 
instructor in Greek, by the great Dr. Charles 
Anthon, in his (Anthon's) College grammar 
school, that the handling of such scholars as I have 
just described became such a tax upon the doctor's 
disciplinary resources, that he finally adopted the 
following plan : He instructed his tutors to make 
every extra effort in every known direction to stir 
up these drones. "Try love, try anger, try call- 
ing them names, insult them, whip them — any- 



DR. ANTHON 



185 



thing," said Dr. Anthon, "to ascertain if there 
be a vulnerable point anywhere in their nature ; 
and if you cannot touch them, send them to me. ' ' 
When such scholars were sent to the doctor, he 
would, my friend informed me, make them get all 
their books together, and then taking them to the 
door, say to them: "Now go home, and come 
back here no more. ' ' Nothing, my friend told 
me, could ever induce the doctor to take back 
again such discharged scholars. He told me that 
he had seen rich, influential parents beg, entreat 
Dr. Anthon to take their expelled children back 
again, but never did they succeed. The doctor's 
argument was: "They are an injury, a drawback 
to my school. They keep the good scholars back 
— they make worse those who are inclined to be 
careless ; they consume the valuable time of the 
teachers to no benefit. ' ' 





HENRY WARD BEECHER 




KNOW Mr. Beecher discarded the 
catechism ; I think he went so far as 
to call it something of the devil's 
work, but I verily believe if he had 
studied it himself in his later years it would have 
saved him from many an erratic and unscriptural 
expression and teaching. However, in Scripture 
doctrine, Mr. Beecher is not much authority, and 
never will be. I have frequently heard him 
preach, however ; and I must say such sermons I 
never heard. One I shall never forget : ' ' What is it 
to be a Christian ? ' ' The description of that Chris- 
tian life which would fit for heaven was enough 
to make any professor tremble with fear at his 
shortcomings, and truly ask : ' ' Am I a Christian? ' ' 

»*» 

IT is related by a friend of the late Mr. Beecher, 
that on one occasion he saw Mr. Beecher so 
illy and insultingly treated by a person whom he 

186 



HENRY WARD BEECHER 



187 



knew, that he resolved he would never again 
speak to that man. * i For a long time, ' ' said he, 
"I did not speak to the bold, mean insulter of 
my beloved Mr. Beecher. But one day as I was 
walking along the street, I saw Mr. Beecher ahead 
of me, leaning upon the arm of some friend, and 
in pleasing, animated conversation. As I drew 
near, I saw it was the very man whom I had but 
a little before heard abuse him! I felt deep 
chidings at my own action, and learned from Mr. 
Beecher a lesson of humility and forgiveness I 
shall never forget. ' ' 






THAT FAMOUS BLIZZARD 

SHOULD write you a word about our 
great blizzard of March 12th. Such 
a terrible storm I never witnessed — 
for two days without cessation con- 
tinued snow and hurricane winds. We have often 
heard of Western blizzards and consoled ourselves 
with the thought and assurance : Well we have 
no such terrible things in these pacific parts ; but 
alas! we now all know what "bUz" means. Such 
snow-drifts, such confusion, such a paralyzing of 
business, such a destitution of food, such snail- 
like locomotion, such colds among our people, 
such complaining, such suffering of the poor, such 
breaking open of highways by forces of men 
shoveling snow in every direction, such detention 
of mails, of telegraphic communication, such 
scarcity of daily papers (fifty cents offered for 
the Herald) — everything in jargon and confusion. 
If so it may be, we do never again want to see 
one of these visitants upon our coast. 
188 



~" -^-"cO^-fi^^ € : ^4 5 c) fe<^=2<k fir 7l2 




CONEY ISLAND -SABBATH 
BREAKING 

E have just passed through one of the 
greatest storms on record for this 
season of the year. The damage 
done to our late crops has been quite 
large; damage to our sea-coast watering-places 
untold ; damage to the far-famed Coney Island, 
immense. I visited the place shortly after the 
storm. In this place especially Sabbath desecra- 
tion is fearful. Trains of cars run from the cities 
of New York and Brooklyn every few minutes, 
and often as many as forty or fifty thousand peo- 
ple have visited the place on a single Sabbath. 
Drinking, gambling, immorality — bands of music 
playing afternoon and evening. Yesterday a 
week ago they had one of their gala Sabbaths, 
defying as it were the Almighty in breaking his 
day. On Sabbath evening the tide and wind 
began to rise, and continued with the lashing of 
189 



190 PEN PARABLES 

immense sea- waves for nearly two days, spreading 
destruction on every side, carrying some buildings 
out to sea, throwing others up upon the shore, 
ground into kindling-wood. One building which 
some two weeks ago I saw standing firm, about 
forty by one hundred feet lay upon the shore 
completely ground up. It would look as if it 
were an impossibility for the waves to so destroy 
it. To one hotel the damage is estimated at 
$100,000 — more than all the season's profits. 
The famous Brighton racing-grounds which were 
not far from the sea, and where on the previous 
Saturday a vast crowd had gathered for betting 
— hundreds having staked their all on racers, 
some having mortgaged their houses for money 
with which to bet, others having taken the sup- 
port from their wives and children, multitudes of 
employees having robbed their employers to raise 
funds for betting — these grounds have been en- 
tirely covered by the sea, and when I saw them, 
were all about four feet under water. 

It is upon the lips of old and young, of saint 
especially, and often of sinner, ' ' Well, this is the 
result of breaking the Sabbath ; it is the Lord's 
doings!" I verily believe it is. 







NUGGETS 

HE Christian's reward is not only a 
treasure laid up, a crown awaiting 
him in the Fatherland of glory, but 
a continued inhalation soul-peace 
and comfort and joy, as he passes on through his 
earth-pilgrimage, breathing the Master's spirit in 
prayer, in holy toil for him — in a life of holy de- 
votion. What narrow views of heaven have they 
who think only of joys in the end, and seek not to 
make their soul-life a heaven as they pass on ! 



CREEDS and doctrinal standards, I think, are 
most essential to healthy Christian growth, 
provided they are drawn only from the Word and 
clearly proved by it. Why they aid is, because 
the large body of divinity contained in the Word 
is brought into a more tangible shape, a more 
condensed form. 

191 



192 PEN PARABLES 



i 



T is the possession of Christ which constitutes 
the true profession of him. 



I COULD not refrain from writing as I have, 
after reading your last letter, informing me 
of the prosperity of the Black Lake Mission, when 
I thought of him who did so much to start this 
good work which lay so near his Christian heart. 
You wrote me that five souls had been converted 
during a revival at the chapel. A blessing in 
itself, a holy triumph for Jesus, compared with 
which all the effort to establish this mission, the 
means employed, the money expended, the time 
given, is, so to speak, as nothing. 



I LOVE the vale of humility ; it is here I find 
the dearest friends of the Master, here they 
can best understand and appreciate each other. 
Here I find the sweetest companionship with my 
adorable Redeemer. Why were we ever led into 
this fellowship, into this exalted valley of humil- 
ity? It is all of the sovereign mercy of God 
toward us. The Lord humbled our sinful wills 
by breaking them ; and by breaking them he made 



NUGGETS 193 

them a thousand- fold stronger in grace than 
they ever could have been strong in sin. 



DURING the busy season upon the farm, I 
get little leisure to write much. It has 
often been a serious question with me, inasmuch 
as my correspondence has grown so large, and if 
in it I am doing the Master any service, whether 
I ought not to curtail outdoor duties, and give 
more time to writing. And then again I think 
and know quite well that I could hardly endure 
too much mental work, especially if I did not get 
physical exercise ; and a little exercise on my soil 
gives me just the change I need. 

YOUR absence from home led you to appre- 
ciate it more when you returned, and I 
doubt not you felt more encouraged to go to 
your field of toil again. How often have I left 
home for a little jaunt and returned better satis- 
fied with home than ever ! How often in witness- 
ing the toil and anxiety and care and slavish 
vigilance of business or professional men, have I 
been led with new pleasure and encouragement to 



194 PEN PARABLES 

turn to my farm, and feel and know that here 
is more material prosperity, more independence, 
more robust health, more leisure for mind-im- 
provement, and the blessed field for quite as large 
spiritual growth, and of good-doing, as in almost 
any other calling or profession. 



I AM glad you have a little home of your own, 
and a dear wife to enjoy it with you. I am 
glad that the Lord is in your home. No friend 
will you ever know or find whose presence and 
companionship will make your home so happy, 
so cheerful, so loving, as his presence and company 
there. To set up a home without asking the 
heavenly Father to come and make his abode in 
it, is like building a house without a roof. A 
roofless house is ever open to rain and storm. 
Those who live in it get no rest or comfort. The 
furniture will all soon be spoiled, and such ruin 
and disaster will follow that in a little time the 
inmates will have to leave. Without the Lord 
in the home, the spiritual roof of his protection 
is wanting. 



NUGGETS 195 

MY daily prayer is, "O Lord, answer the 
prayer of these dear ones for me, in pour- 
ing out the Holy Spirit upon my soul. ' ' I feel 
that this is the greatest gift I can ask of my 
Father. In the gift of the Spirit are included, 
a knowledge of Christ, a revelation of his blessed 
work, a view of the terrible evil of sin, a growth 
in holiness of heart, gentleness of spirit, and godly 
humility, an increasing deadness to the world, 
and a more vital union to our Lord. With the 
gift of the Holy Spirit comes consecration to the 
Lord, a growing likeness to our Saviour, a more 
holy communion, and a more blessed companion- 
ship with him. 

In this great difference in my experience be- 
tween prayer without the Spirit, and prayer in 
the Spirit, what gratitude, what love to him I 
feel through whom I was led from the exercise of 
the spiritless, to that of the spiritual ! What an 
empty, heartless exercise the first, what a soul-fill- 
ing joy the last ! What a blessed substitution by 
the Master of the last for the first ! Christ in the 
place of self — the spiritual in the place of the 
carnal — the heavenly in the place of the earthly — 
light for darkness — joy for sorrow — peace for 
confusion — victory for defeat — strength for weak- 
ness — life for death ! 



196 PEN PARABLES 

I well remember hearing the great temperance 
lecturer, John B. Gough, relate how that but for a 
word of encouragement from a friend, he would 
have quite given up all effort at reform. He 
related how he had fought for many days with 
his appetite for strong drink, after he had signed 
the temperance pledge ; and was about to give up 
all hope, when unexpectedly meeting a friend, 
that friend, placing his hand upon his shoulder, 
praised him for the step he had taken in signing 
the pledge, and entreated him to courageously 
persevere in the good path of reform — "Al- 
ready," said Mr. Gough, "had Satan entwined 
his snares about me — already filled my mind Wrlh 
strange vagaries — serpents and demons seemed to 
have me already in their grasp. I felt that there 
was no escape but to go back to my old habits. 
Just then did the good Christian meet me, and 
by his timely words of encouragement inspire 
within me new strength to struggle with my foe ; 
and in that struggle by the help of God I won." 

Men may call us fools for not going with them 
into evil, but we would surely be fools if we 
went ; for if a man goes among fools, he either is 
one, or will very soon become one. And when a 
man once gets to be a fool, there is no telling 



NUGGETS 197 

when he will ever come to his senses again ; very 
likely never ! The man who will never become a 
fool, is he whose heart is fixed on the Lord. The 
Bible tells us, " Thejear of the Lord is the begin- 
ning of wisdom; A good understanding have all 
they who keep his commandments. ' ' To live a 
holy life with Christ, is to so live that the world 
will hate and scorn us, but the friendship of Christ 
will do far more for us than the enmity of the 
world can do against us. 

Often do I think of you in your toils for the 
good Master, and wonder with what degree of 
success he is blessing them. In this toil, success 
has two applications, an internal, and an external 
— the soul of the toiler, and the results of his 
toil. I heard an experienced missionary once 
remark, that he " never knew or heard of an un- 
happy missionary." The performance of holy 
duty is always attended by a greater or less 
amount of heart- joy. 

I FREQUENTLY heard the great evangelist, 
Dr. Menhall, preach in Dr. Talmage's Taber- 
nacle, last winter. Such sermons I never before 
heard. I never heard a man so mighty in the 
Scriptures. When at the end of his wonderful 



198 PEN PARABLES 

sermons, he would request those to rise who de- 
sired to become Christians and wished to be 
prayed for, one would think his whole vast audi- 
ence would at once have arisen and each cried out 
from the depth of a sin-convicted soul, ' ' Oh, pray 
for me, pray for me, I want the Saviour, I want 
salvation"; but alas, only here and there one 
arose. As I witnessed this, I could not but think : 
What a stubborn, what a mighty foe is sin ! how 
hard the impenitent heart ! 

THE life exhibition of a joyous faith and trust 
in Christ by his disciples will ever send 
forth the most deadly arrows into the sin-ranks 
of the wicked. A heaven-smile is the most effec- 
tual reproof to a sin-frown. He who contentedly 
sits chained in the cloisters of sin, will never feel so 
disturbed, self -condemned, never so realize his sad 
condition as when faced and looked upon, and 
smiled upon by a happy soul-rejoicing believer 
in Christ. «- 

I HOPE your boy will not be so foolish as to 
set himself in defiance against the truths of 
the living God. His unbelief will never shake 



NUGGETS 199 

them — his enmity will never harm them — his rea- 
soning will never disprove, nor his logic over- 
throw them. But of one fact let him be certain ; 
that every blow he foolishly and in his weakness 
aimed at Jesus and his holy religion, will rebound 
upon himself, like the buckle, to do himself the 
most harm. And it will rebound at a time when 
he will be powerless to resist, to evade the blow ; 
when reproving conscience shall confess : ' ' Great 
and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Al- 
mighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King 
of saints. ' ■ ^ 

BUT in all that we behold in the tendency of 
men to evil, in what we see and feel in our 
own souls, we have a fearful illustration of the 
evil nature, the might, the power of sin; that 
power whose aim and object is to work the eternal 
ruin of the soul which will not take flight and 
leave the soul at rest by one victory of good over 
it, but nothing daunted is continually coming up 
in fresh attack. This onslaught can only be 
resisted by the continued presence of heaven-sent 
grace ; and that grace is never wanting in those 
whose lives are "hid with Christ in God." The 
storehouse of God's grace is ever open, ever 



200 PEN PARABLES 

full. Into it God's child may ever enter, from 
it take all the supplies needed to "quench all 
the fiery darts of the wicked." 

A YOUNG Christian minister, a relative of 
mine, recently said to me: "I have been 
permitted to gather in about all who are in my 
little parish into the church, and what more can 
I do? I think I shall seek another charge." I 
replied: "Perhaps your most successful charge 
will be just where you are laboring; as you have 
gathered all these in, now let your aim be to have 
all grow in grace ; educate them in the things of 
Christ ; lead your flock up to higher planes, to 
more abundant pastures, to an increase in spirit- 
uality, to a more decided consecration, to more 
holiness of life. So will there go out from you 
a spirit of power which will be quite equivalent 
to any labors in a new charge. ' ' He agreed with 
me, and I believe he has gone with a renewed 
consecration to labor among his spiritual chil- 
dren. Your efforts so blest among your people 
have, I know, given you power among and en- 
deared you to them ; and your decision to remain 
has undoubtedly been directed by and in accord 



NUGGETS 



201 



with the divine will for the mutual benefit of both 
pastor and people. 

THE great cry which but a few years ago 
came up from the Lord's servants was : ' ' Oh, 
that the world were opened to the gospel — that 
the hindrances to its being carried to the nations 
were removed. ' ' At this day the double cry is 
— on the part of God's people: "Send the men, 
and grant the means" — on the part of the hea- 
then: "Come over, and help us — we perish!" 
The Saviour's large answering of the first petition 
in removing the hindrances, is most encouraging 
evidence that the answering of the second will 
soon follow. 

"Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen 
for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of 
the earth for thy possession." 




c^csL> »Li^oi^i*y^(f^ /J^^Ljfx^'vr^)) \i>lujy^£Julr^ 



SOMETHING NEW FOR 
EASTER 




FTER not many hours but many days 
of study on the subject suggested 
by you, I have been enabled to 
somewhat express my thoughts upon 
it in the following lines : 

"SOMETHING NEW FOR EASTER" 

Some new robe for this holy day 
What grand dress shall it be? 
In studied thought each seems to say : 
"What robe is meet for me?" 

The fettered slave of fashion's art 

In gorgeous dress-array 
No higher soars in thought or heart, 

Than thus to greet this day. 

But there's a robe for this good morn, 

More beautiful and bright 
Than e'er did mortal form adorn, 

Or dazzle mortal sight. 
202 



SOMETHING NEW FOR EASTER 203 

A shining robe of heavenly hue, 

Wrought by Infinite skill, 
Which Jesus gives the chosen few 

Who love to do his will. 

The robe of penitence, of prayer, 

By God's dear children worn, 
Than which no robe so meet to wear, 

On holy Easter morn. 

In deep humility bow low, 

My proud rebellious heart ; 
Hear, Lord, my plea — on me bestow 

This robe of heavenly art. 

Grant me to kneel in this pure dress 

At Easter's sacred shrine : 
Wait there thy precious love-caress, 

And. feel thee, Saviour, mine. 

What heavenly joy I then shall know ! 

What peace, what purity ! 
What heaven-light in my soul will glow 

In union, Lord, with thee ! 

Then with what burning zeal I'll press 

Toward the heavenly goal ; 
How toil, that others I may bless, 

And lead to Jesus' fold ! 



204 



PEN PARABLES 



Then, Saviour, in this fervent prayer, 
I'll pour my suppliant breath: — 

Grant all mankind a pardon-share 
In thine atoning death. 

And thus, as with each passing year, 

Bright Easter comes apace, 
Would I in God's blest house appear, 

Arrayed in robes of grace. 

And when, at length, on earth I'll score 

My last dear Easter morn ; 
The holiest robe I ever wore, 

May it my soul adorn. 

Thus clad, Heaven's call I'll gladly wait, 

To fly from earth away ; 
And shout, when passing through death's gate, 

"Eternal Easter Day!" 







ANCHORED THOUGHTS 




LL true, efficacious prayer has its 
blessed origin in the tender love- 
affections of a heart under the sanc- 
tified rule of the Holy Spirit. 



WE may be scrupulously careful to " lay judg- 
ment to the line, and righteousness to the 
plummet' 1 in our critical diagnosis of the Chris- 
tian life and character of others, while did we 
carefully apply the same test to our own Christian 
experience, we would very likely find ourselves 
much more deserving of the criticism than those 
we took so much pains to weigh and criticise. 



TO wish evil to come upon another, often 
proves an answered prayer in its coming 
upon ourselves. 

205 



206 PEN PARABLES 

TRUE religion does not consist in what one 
merely asserts he believes or possesses of it, 
but in what, by holy example, by self-denial, by 
zeal for Christ, he proves to be in himself both as 
to belief and as to possession. 



HE who professes Christ and does not live 
Christ, gives the bold, open, unmistakable 
lie to the claim that he possesses the Spirit of 
Christ ; and not possessing his Spirit, he is none 
of his. ,q 

THAT which we may give grudgingly or 
ostentatiously to the Lord's cause, he may 
use for a blessing upon others, while the spirit 
in which we gave it will hinder the least blessing 
from coming upon ourselves. 



WHAT multitudes are ever ready to give 
good spiritual advice to others, while they 
are sadly wrecking their own spiritual interests for 
time, for eternity, because of the need of follow- 
ing such advice themselves. 



ANCHORED THOUGHTS 207 

IT will very generally be found quite true 
that those professing Christians who are ever 
ready to condemn their brother Christians as need- 
ing reconversion, are the very ones most needing 
it themselves. ._ 

WE may very suddenly cut short the good we 
have begun to do, and might long have 
continued to do, by selfishly taking to ourselves, 
instead of giving to the good Lord, the praise. 



HE who jestingly repeats the oaths of the 
profane swearer, is equally guilty with 
him of the vile sin of profanity. 



EVERY excuse, however plausible and self- 
satisfying to his sin-ruled soul, which 
keeps a poor impenitent sinner from crying to 
Jesus for pardon and salvation, is the devil's cun- 
ning suggestion or device to keep the sinner for 
himself. ,_ 

IT is the contrite soul ever linked in holy fel- 
lowship with Jesus, who will be in his Sa- 
viour's service a force, a power, Satan will greatly 



208 PEN PARABLES 

fear to antagonize, because one who will always 
leave him in ignominious defeat. 



QUITE barren of holy result will be our 
efforts to induce others to love and serve 
Jesus, unless we can and do appeal to them on 
the strong ground of our own soul experience. 



NOTHING save the mantle of Jesus' precious 
love thrown over and about his dear ones 
will effectually protect the love-bloom, the faith- 
bloom, the grace-bloom of their souls from the 
withering blight of the frosts of sin. 



MY precious beloved mother in glory : Angel 
of light, of comfort, of joy thou art to me. 
Often I see thee in heaven-adorned beauty at my 
side — often upturn my face for the kiss of thy 
tender love — often stretch my arms out in holy 
affection to embrace thy dear spirit-form — often 
in devout prayer feel thy holy hands laid upon 
my head — often I hear the rapture songs of thy 
Christ-redeemed spirit — often I feel the joyous 
heart-thrill of thy holy voice calling to me: 



ANCHORED THOUGHTS 209 

"My dearly beloved, my oft-prayed-for boy, 
I'm looking, waiting, longing to meet thee, to 
greet thee in heaven. ' ' 

GOD'S dear servant should ever be so filled 
with the love-spirit of Jesus that when 
the bow of death shall be drawn over his happy 
soul, it shall respond in full tune with the heavenly 
choir, and he shall depart, in vibrating harmony, 
with his eternal song-home in glory. 






AFFLICTION AND CONSO- 
LATION 

S regards the general cause why the 
Lord's beloved are often called to 
trial, there may not always come a 
clear and definite solution — or I 
would say, an individual reason, applicable to 
the particular case and circumstances of the pecul- 
iar trial. The Master says to those to whom he 
does not clearly reveal the causes of his dealing 
with them : * ' What I do thou knowest not now, 
but thou shalt know hereafter;" " My grace is 
sufficient for thee ; thy strength is made perfect in 
weakness" ; ' ' Be not afraid, only believe' ' ; ' ' Com- 
mit thy way unto the Lord. ' ' And so the tried 
one is called upon to rest in a living faith in him 
who in his own time and way will unfold the wise 
reasons for all his dealings with him, and this 
unfolding may never take place until he shall see 
his Redeemer face to face. Thus the particular 
210 



AFFLICTION AND CONSOLATION 211 

reason why God afflicts can only be solved in that 
heart-faith which speaks in the expression, "It is 
the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good. ' ' 

But then there are in many cases special reasons 
which often become very apparent to the Lord's 
beloved. His wise design is set forth before them 
more and more fully, as he makes all their trials 
subserve the great ends of glorifying his name, 
and extending his kingdom in the earth. It is 
not every one who professes to love the Master 
whom he thus calls to suffer — and why? Because 
they are not the ones whom he would honor to 
this end. To glorify the Saviour in the test- 
crucible of bodily pain and physical infirmity, 
calls for no ordinary subject. Hence he who is 
thus called, has no light honor put upon him, 
but a holy preferment, which will ever prove a 
soul-cheering, a soul-satisfying assurance of ac- 
ceptance in the Beloved, and an eternal rest at 
the end of the thorny path. 

Now I know that the afflicted sometimes become 
despondent, and may perhaps even murmur at 
their great trials ; but I think there is nothing 
condemnatory in this. They do not despond or 
complain because they have not faith in Jesus, or 
hope in his salvation — oh, no. The foundation 



212 PEN PARABLES 

rock of the believer's faith is not removed or 
overthrown, but the clouds come, and the down- 
cast spirit is the result of the effect which the 
painful suffering body has upon the soul. 

Not till we shall put off the body, will we fly 
out into the free, pure, limitless air of God's 
eternal love and ceaseless heavenly sunshine. 



THE Master wonderfully comes with his holy 
joy to each of his children; to the well, 
strong and healthy, to do his will ; to the sick, 
weak and distressed, to suffer his will. Upon both 
the doer and the sufferer, the eternal blessing will 
rest 

GROUNDLESS FEARS 

HOW often we live in terror and untold anx- 
iety about the troubles and trials and 
afflictions which we anticipate, but which, when 
they do come, are divested of fear and perplexity. 
The reason is, that when we look at the future of 
suffering which may be before us, we look at it 
from a human standpoint, and God is not in the 
consideration ; but when we actually come into 
the furnace of trial, the fear and distrust are 



AFFLICTION AND CONSOLATION 213 

gone, because our Saviour takes the burden for 
us. We have the promise verified, "My grace 
is sufficient for thee. ' ' 

A dear relative of my wife went through many 
of his years, grieving, sighing and trembling 
because of his great fear of death. When he 
came near his end, he said : ' * I am dying, and can 
it be that this is death ; that which I have so 
many years dreaded, and so long lived in terror 
of? Surely it is no terror now to me ; I do not 
fear to die! Can it be that this is death?" and 
so he calmly, peacefully fell asleep in Jesus. 

Oh, how wonderfully favored are you of the 
dear Lord that in the midst of your great bodily 
suffering your soul can look up through the pain 
and distress and say: Dear Saviour, thou art 
mine ! "My heart and my strength may fail me, 
but God is the strength of my heart and my por- 
tion forever." ^ 

GOD administers through the faith and the 
patience and the growing graces of his 
afflicted, severe and just rebuke to those profess- 
ing Christians who fret and chafe— yea, even 
accuse the good Lord with unjust dealings, be- 
cause of the little trivial, petty annoyances of life, 



214 PEN PARABLES 

and the little obstructions in their Christian path, 
and the little physical pain-twinges they may 
occasionally feel. Does not the Lord in his deal- 
ings say often to such : ' ' Have the temporal and 
spiritual blessings showered upon thee, dwarfed 
thy Christian faith and love and zeal? Behold, 
I will shower upon thee burdens of trial by which 
I will make thee a Christian, stalwart in every 
grace. I have tried thee by the presence of tem- 
poral good, and thou hast forgotten me ; lo ! I 
will test thee by the presence of great trouble, 
and thou shalt become strong in the faith and 
glorify me." 

I DO not say a healthy, vigorous man cannot 
live and die in Jesus, but I know the afflicted 
ones are generally the most beloved of God, walk 
the nearest to the dear Saviour, and often re- 
joice the most in his dear presence and heavenly 
smiles. «- 

AS the quaint old Dutch writer says: "And 
do we think we ought to have it better 
than our dear Lord? If so, we greatly mistake." 



AFFLICTION AND CONSOLATION 215 

"T) EH OLD W e count them happy who en- 
U dure. ' ' The endurance in the faith, es- 
pecially of God's severely tried ones, cannot but 
tend to their good and his glory in the stirring 
up of the brethren in faith, in zeal, in works ; in 
the illustrated evidence to the world that the 
religion of Christ is a blessed, soul-sustaining, 
soul-comforting reality. And such illustration 
of religious truth is fact, not theory ; proof, not 
argument. The infidel said: "I can meet any 
argument in religious spheres, but I can never 
refute, as an argument for the truth of religion, 
the life of my Christian mother." 

The great reason why many do not sympathize 
with the afflicted, and see, as they say, no reason 
for dejection of soul or for trouble of spirit, or 
for discouragement, is because they either do not 
feel, or are of hardened heart ; or else have never 
gone through the furnace of bodily suffering, or 
bereavement. Alas, alas ! how often have we had 
these ' 'Job's comforters!" 

When in the deep waters of affliction, in the 
loss of my beloved (I hope you have never felt 
sorrow akin to mine in this direction), how often 
was I reproved by those who never had experi- 
enced such grief. While I knew all was in ac- 



216 PEN PARABLES 

cordance with the Master's will, yet I could not 
but groan and sigh and weep. Indeed, the great 
design of our Father is, I believe, as in my now 
case, to lead us through his afflictive providences, 
so that by being softened, mellowed, humbled, 
we may be brought lovingly near to him in the 
exercise of a deeper devotion and a stronger faith. 



I REMEMBER once hearing Mr. Beecher speak 
about a member of his congregation who had 
been confined for years to her room. She was 
the very exemplification of Christian patience in 
all her trial. She said to Mr. Beecher : ' * I thought 
that I would have had much opportunity for doing 
good in a useful life for my Saviour, but here I 
am laid by as useless." "Oh, no!" he replied, 
"you are a most useful Christian, doing wondrous 
good ; for, my dear child, your patience in your 
affliction is speaking powerfully for the truth of 
the religion of Jesus, and you are thereby doing 
wondrous good." 

One of the best men I ever met has now been 
for nearly five years confined to his room. Oh, 
what a triumphant faith — what a glorious hope 
and blessed companionship with the dear Saviour 



AFFLICTION AND CONSOLATION 217 

are his ! I do indeed often envy him his rap- 
turous joy in the dear Lord! I wish you could 
read some of the glorious letters he writes to me, 
as he sits bent almost together with bodily pain. 
They are marvels of spiritual mindedness — 
streams from the wells of salvation in his own soul ; 
and of his wondrous soul-development in holy 
things no true conception can be formed. The 
growth in grace, the blessed hope, the strong faith, 
the soul-profiting companionship with his Lord, 
his deep heart- love for his Saviour — all are marvel- 
ous, as shown both in his life and in his writings. 

GROWTH IN GRACE THROUGH 
AFFLICTION 

I OFTEN think, my brother, how widely differ- 
ent have been the Lord's dealings with us, 
thus far. I have had very severe sicknesses, and 
been apparently often near the other land ; but the 
Lord mercifully delivered me, and restored me to 
health and strength again. I knew you, too, when 
in vigorous health, but now this blessing has left 
you. But we know not the designs of our dear 
Lord in his dealings with us until they develop in 
our own experience in this life, or are kept from 



218 PEN PARABLES 

us for full revelation in the life to come. Often 
however, while we may not fully apprehend the 
design of our Father's dealing with us, that design 
becomes very manifest often to our Christian 
friends by the growth in grace, the increasing 
heavenly mindedness, holy love, sweet soul-peace 
and perfect resignation to the Master's will, on 
the part of the afflicted one. As we may notice 
great changes in those we see but seldom, while 
from the gradual operation in or upon themselves, 
they are hardly aware of the alteration, so is it in 
holy things. And thus in you, my brother, I see 
in your dear letters increasing Christian growth ; 
increasing faith, increasing love, humility, res- 
ignation to the Father's will. Increasing near- 
ness, too, and holy intimacy with the Saviour. I 
know the dear Master has his glory and thy eternal 
good in view. The way, I know, is rough, and 
the path thorny, and the days and nights follow 
each other with great bodily pain and unrest, and 
often with great mental anxiety, and with fear 
and distrust in thy poor self. Oh! how the 
physical and the spiritual react upon each other — 
yet the Lord will comfort his afflicted and give 
them songs in the night. Oh, my brother, what 
an honor to hold aloft with unfaltering soul, 



AFFLICTION AND CONSOLATION 219 

from the decaying embers of a suffering body, the 
heavenly ensign of faith, love, humility, patience, 
for the glory of the Captain of thy salvation ! 
To very few does the Master accord this heavenly 
honor ; for very few would be equal to the task. 



I WELL know what sickness and affliction are, 
for I have had much heavy illness in my life. 
I have several times been apparently near the 
golden gates. From one attack of rheumatism it 
took me ten years to recover — from a wound, three 
years; and I have had heavy afflictions also. 
Loved one after loved one has been removed, and 
I am almost alone ; but the Lord has all through 
been my Strength and Comforter. I often used 
to think that I could direct my own way, and 
knew best myself — but I had to pay dearly for it. 
The Lord soon drove me out of myself to rest en- 
tirely in him, and it has been a great blessing for 
my soul. David says: " Before I was afflicted I 
went astray, but now will I keep thy righteous 
laws." And I learn from your Christian letter 
that the dear Master has also led you to trust 
more and more fully in him by reason of your 
sore affliction. I can just imagine how you must 



220 PEN PARABLES 

feel ; and I can hear your often uttered prayers in 
the daytime, and in the long tedious sleepless 
hours of the night. Yes, and in the midst of all, 
the Saviour has cheered you by day, and given 
you happy songs in the night, and so there has 
come to your heart a heavenly rapture ; and you 
have cried out: "I thank thee, my dear Re- 
deemer, for thy presence; for thy joy, thy peace, 
thy help; for the sure hope of Heaven." 

YOUR long apprenticeship in the Master's 
school of affliction has already prepared 
you for work in his vineyard here below. What 
words of warning to the impenitent, of encourage- 
ment to the tried, of comfort to the afflicted, of 
joy to the sorrowing, have you been permitted 
to pen ! And these words are of double power to 
those addressed, because they come from one who 
has long tested practically the holy reality of 
those inspired truths he is permitted to utter. 

Dear Brother Kinne: 

I AM much grieved to hear of Rev. Mr. Black- 
ford's troubles. From frequent correspond- 
ence with him during a period of about six years, 



AFFLICTION AND CONSOLATION 221 

I had learned to highly regard him as a Christian 
of the highest type, who ever had the glory of 
Christ in view in seeking to grow himself in the 
knowledge of his Redeemer, and in endeavoring 
to lead others to the same knowledge. From all 
I can gather of him his work was a steady, on-go- 
ing, persevering effort in the direction of good. 
His heart was for Jesus, and he did what he could 
in obedience to his heart prompting. I now re- 
member, from the tenor of letters written me long 
ago by him, that he often complained of fatigue. 
What weariness he often suffered while perhaps 
in the very performance of his full duties as pastor, 
we perhaps little know. Many there are who go 
on from day to day, in the regular performance 
of their secular or religious duties, who are some- 
times more fit to be upon their beds and attended 
by a physician; yet no person save themselves 
knows their physical or mental condition. They 
do not want to burden others by a recital of their 
ills ; nor to alarm those near to them. 

And then, again, their continuance in labor 
may be a positive necessity; they have none to 
take their place; their own living and that of 
their family are dependent upon them, and 
their earnest desire is to accomplish the great- 



PEN PARABLES 



est results in their calling, to the best of their 
ability. 

While often perhaps so wearied and feeble and 
sick as to be really unfit for work, they uncom- 
plainingly persevere. Their inanity may often 
be attributed by others to want of interest, to 
laziness. I have often known such instances. I 
now recall the case of a dear relative, a man of 
very strong common sense, of great learning and 
intellectuality; a man naturally of wonderful 
energy, of indomitable will. He preached the 
gospel for many years at Berne, near Albany, 
then came to Flatbush where I reside, and became 
principal of Erasmus Hall Academy. Often 
would he complain of weariness, and of pains 
from what he called a "hard lump" in his side. 
He was a man of highly nervous temperament, 
and his wife and friends would always pass over 
his ailments or his depressed spirits or his want 
of energy, with the expression, ' ' Oh, you are only 
nervous !" — Only nervous ! After a little, he was 
taken very ill. His brother, a physician of New 
York City, pronounced his trouble nothing but 
nervousness. His ailment however was of a pecul- 
iar character, and after a few weeks 1 sickness he 
died. A post-mortem examination was made, 



AFFLICTION AND CONSOLATION 223 

and a huge cancer of dry gangrene was found 
upon his liver. Physicians said it must have 
been forming for many years, and that it was no 
wonder he was, with such a disease, at times de- 
jected in soul, weary, inanimate, discouraged. 

And so with our Brother Blackford ; who knows 
in the face of how much mind weakness and 
weariness he must have prosecuted his good work? 
How often, doubtless, he spurred up his soul and 
body to the discharge of duty when he felt hardly 
able to go out, and yet complained not. As you 
state, so he often wrote me, that he felt a deep 
interest in the Black Lake Mission. His earnest 
letters to me at its starting enlisted my sympathy 
and interest, and I was permitted to somewhat 
aid him in his good work. How has the truth- 
seed of the Word he sowed in faith and love long 
days ago now come forth to holy fruitage ! 



Dear Brother Dale: 

AS I did not see you at your desk when from 
time to time I was at the Tract House, I 
made inquiry about you, and learned that you 
were not so well as usual, but thought your ab- 
sence was only temporary, as heretofore. I feel 



PEN PARABLES 



sad to learn from your letter, that your sickness 
has necessitated your retirement from your duties 
there ; sad that I shall not again there greet your 
welcome smile, your kindly extended hand, and 
hear your words of encouragement and cheer. 

I ever saw illustrated in you how God's child 
could be cheerful, kind, patient and happy in the 
very furnace of a bodily infirmity which in many 
could not but cause impatience of spirit, morose- 
ness of soul, and discouragement to the point of 
disheartening. 

We often, Peter-like, profess great strength of 
faith, great boldness, great readiness to endure 
trial, conflict, reverse, suffering; but when the 
test is made, we come to great spiritual grief. 
But when as in thy case long years of trial have 
proven to thy own heart's comfort, and to the 
spiritual strengthening of others in the faith of 
Christ, that thy faith and trust and holy, patient 
resignation to thy Father's will have been and 
now are "equal to thy day," what gratitude and 
what a thanksgiving of joy must cheer and fill 
thy heart ! 



AFFLICTION AND CONSOLATION 225 

To Mrs. T. Y. Blanks. 
Dear Christian Sister: 

A FEW days ago I received from Mr. E. A. 
Ethridge the announcement of the death 
of your beloved husband — of my dear Christian 
brother — of the honored father of the Sabbath 
School in your midst — of the Christian light of 
your community — of one of whom it may be 
truly said, he walked with God. You can 
hardly imagine the feelings of sorrow which were 
mine as I read of his departure ; feelings of sor- 
row that a Christian brother whom I had learned 
to honor and love, because I knew his whole soul 
was alive to promote the glory of his Saviour in 
seeking to do good ; one who did good because it 
was his heart-delight to do it ; one who humbly 
walked with Christ because he loved Christ ; one 
who ever was in a praying frame of soul because 
he loved prayer, knew the efficacy of prayer, and 
in answer to prayer had been privileged of the 
Master to do large work for him in leading souls 
to Christ — feelings of sorrow, I repeat, because I 
knew a fellow worker for our Lord had fallen ; 
one upon whom I could ever truly depend to co- 
operate with me in our Christian partnership. 



PEN PARABLES 



Not a book, a tract, a paper, a library, did I ever 
send but I felt, in his hands, it would be, and it 
was, turned to the most profitable account. 

For many years we have corresponded. His 
letters were always a source of great comfort and 
encouragement to me. I keep them all carefully 
filed. I shall often read them for new encourage- 
ment and strength in holy work. In plain and 
simple language they breathe the Christian spirit 
of thy dear one ; love for the Master, and earnest 
desire for the advancement of his] cause, stand 
forth prominently in every page. I ever felt that 
I could write to him with the greatest of freedom ; 
could ever open my heart to him, knowing that 
I had an appreciative, sympathizing Christian 
brother, whose prayers ascended continually for 
me to the dear Lord. I felt that the prayers of 
such a dear friend in Christ were a boon to be 
more desired, and from which more real soul- 
comforting good and help would result than the 
possession and enjoyment of the highest blessings 
of earth. After what I have now written of him, 
you will not wonder that I felt, and will continue 
to feel, that I have sustained a great loss in the 
departure of my Christian brother. 

But I also felt a Christian joy in my soul as I 



AFFLICTION AND CONSOLATION 227 

read of his departure, because I knew that he had 
departed to be with Christ ; heaven was richer by 
another holy guest. 

While to thee, my Christian sister, come all the 
comforts which the religion of Christ can give in 
the assurance that thy beloved is in the glory-rest 
of the redeemed, yet this does not hinder thy heart 
from feeling sorrow, nor restrain thy eyes from 
tears. 

As often with thy dear one I joined in holy 
prayer as I closed my letters to him, so now, 
would I join with thee, imploring the blessing of 
the dear Lord upon thee : 

O Lord, look in very much mercy upon thy 
servant, in this hour of her deep bereavement. 
Thou knowest the depth of her sorrow ; thou canst 
assuage the grief, or give all strength to endure 
it. Cheer her heart with thy comforts, and help 
her in sweet soul-peace to say: "Thy will be 
done. ' ' Direct thy servant in caring for those 
near and dear to her. May they all be the chil- 
dren of the dear Saviour, and by a devoted life 
to thee, live in holy expectation and assurance of 
meeting with their beloved and thy beloved in 
the home above. Amen. 



228 PEN PARABLES 

Dear Christian Friend: 

NOT long ago, I received from your neighbor, 
and my very dear friend, Mr. Low, intelli- 
gence of your sore bereavement. I feel very 
deeply for you, for I know by experience what 
sore bereavement is. It was long before the 
sharpest edges of my grief at the loss of my dear 
ones left me. Although it is fourteen years since 
I lost one most beloved to me, my eyes as I write 
swell with tears at the remembrance of my child. 
Just before this my father was taken ; a few years 
after my dear Christian mother. While the Lord 
has wonderfully sustained me in my bereavements, 
and the deep keen sorrow has, by the flight of 
time, been somewhat softened, yet the wound is 
in my heart, and will there remain till I take 
happy flight to meet them in the land where sor- 
row and parting are unknown. Oh, how fondly 
and how sensitively I cherish the hallowed mem- 
ory of my departed dear ones ! 

When a beloved one is taken from us, a new 
era in our lives begins. A grief, a sorrow has 
come to our hearts, we knew not of before. Our 
thoughts are turned into channels in which they 
never before found themselves. A void is made 
in our lives, of which we might have thought, 



AFFLICTION AND CONSOLATION 229 

but never till we experienced it, fully compre- 
hended. A subject, a trial is brought to our 
mind and heart, over which for the first time, we 
are called to shed heart-broken tears. A cross is 
laid upon us to bear, the weight of which we 
never conceived till called to carry it. A duty 
to fill the departed one's place, we could not 
imagine, till called to bear and do it. We have 
taken into our memories and hearts the life and 
the love of our departed, to carry with us as long 
as we sojourn in this vale of tears. A loved one 
in Heaven is a treasure for us garnered there, and 
Heaven is nearer, and Christ is dearer than ever 
before. 

Nor does the Lord mean that we should forget 
our loved ones whom he has taken to himself, 
nor harden ourselves in seeking to be insensible 
to, and unfeeling about our loss. No, but he 
desires us to benefit by our afflictions, in remem- 
bering the holy lives of trust and love and faith 
of our beloved who die in Christ — to follow Christ 
as they followed him — to look daily to that home 
of life and light and eternal bliss to which they 
have gone ; and to so live as to surely anticipate 
the hour when our eternal reunion with them in 
the rapture-land shall begin. 



230 PEN PARABLES 

I AM glad the little book I sent to the afflicted 
parents has been the means of comforting 
their hearts. Tell them I deeply sympathize with 
them. I know how they feel, for I have myself 
gone through the same bitter trial. But are not 
our dear little ones far better in the song-home of 
heaven, in the rapture of the blest, in the eternal 
guardianship of Jesus than they ever could have 
been with us? Oh, yes! They have passed to 
the rest without the toil, to the victory without 
the conflict, to the song without the sorrow ; to 
the pure joy of the glory-land without the long 
and soul-trying temptations and scourgings and 
wounds and stings of this dreary earth life. 
Glorious heaven ! glorious songsters, those pure, 
white-robed little ones chanting forever the heav- 
enly songs in the upper sanctuary. Blessed 
Christian parents they who are continually repre- 
sented before the eternal throne by their beloved 
little ones. How should this thought fill their 
hearts with praise and thanksgiving, and lead 
them to more and more close communion with the 
dear Saviour, that so they may be the better pre- 
pared to go to their beloved, and be with them 
forever ! 



AFFLICTION AND CONSOLATION 231 

To James F. Lemon : 

GLORY to God for the eternal triumph of his 
beloved in Christ Jesus! Guiding-stars 
are they for the righteous, cheer-stars for the 
afflicted, peace-stars for the troubled, warning- 
stars for the heedless and erring. I believe, my 
afflicted brother, that the Master has chosen thee 
by thy sufferings as a celestial lamp to be hung in 
the halls of the glory-mansion, there to reflect his 
triumph in thee as a light for all eternity ; and 
long after thou hast departed from earth, the 
memory of thy faith, of thy holy love, of thy 
patience will also shine before all who have wit- 
nessed thy Christian life, before all who have 
heard or read of thy waiting upon the Lord, will 
shine as a guide to the erring, as a help to the 
tried, as an encouragement to the afflicted. Oh, 
what a legacy to leave to the truth of religion, to 
the church of the living God, to the world! 
What legacy can equal such an one in value, in 
duration, in praise, in usefulness? I know that 
thy soul, and the soul of Brother Barnes, is fed 
continually with the hidden manna from the 
glory-throne, else how could' st thou have en- 
dured to the present? Thou art a verification of 
the truth of the holy Word: "I will never leave 



PEN PARABLES 



thee nor forsake thee. " ' * My grace is sufficient 
for thee." 

* ' When through the deep waters I call thee to go, 
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow ; 
For I will be with thee thy troubles to bless, 
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress. ' ' 



Dear Brother Lemon: 

IT is now over two months since I wrote to you. 
I have not however forgotten you. Often do 
I think of you on your trying pilgrimage to the 
eternal city of light, of life, of joy, of peace, of 
rest. You are nearer now than ever to the golden 
gate, to the great white throne, to the glory- 
crown, to the welcome smiles of thy once crucified 
Lord ; to the command of the Master — ' ' Come ye 
blessed, inherit, the kingdom prepared for you 
from the foundation of the world. ' ' How much 
more blessed is the suffering saint with this glor- 
ious hope and assurance in his soul, than they 
who may never feel a bodily pain or pang, and 
yet be devoid of such a hope ! 



AFFLICTION AND CONSOLATION 233 

To Thomas Lemon. 

Dear Brother Thomas: 

RECEIVED yours of February 4th, in which 
you inform me of the death of your be- 
loved father. He has passed from the heavy cross 
of long deep affliction, to the crown of eternal 
rejoicing. And if any have ever won that glory- 
crown by patient endurance in affliction, by look- 
ing and longing and waiting for the blessed ap- 
pearance of the dear Lord to come and take him 
to his home above, your dear one has won it. 
After sixteen years of bodily suffering, what a 
relief must it have been to him to leave the body, 
and to enter into sweet, painless, soul-rejoicing 
rest ! No mind can imagine, no pen can describe 
the wonderful change. Through long years of 
suffering he was ripening for his mansion home, 
in glory. 

I do not know that a day has passed since I 
first knew of him, and received the first precious 
Christian letter from him, that I have not thought 
of him, and endeavored to commend him to the 
dear Saviour, whom he so dearly loved. And 
now the light of his Christian life will for all 
time hang as a heavenly luminary over his home, 



234 PEN PARABLES 

over his family, over the church he loved, over 
the grave in which he peacefully slumbers await- 
ing the resurrection morning. The Lord wanted 
to light a great candle in Sassafras, in Glouces- 
ter. He chose the sufferings of your father to 
light it by the exhibition of his faith in Christ, 
his patience in pain, his unwavering trust in the 
Master. 

HOPE AND FRUITION 

JESUS is not going to let his afflicted suffer 
here below and then in the end reject them. 
No, no! But one day, while in the midst of 
their bodily sufferings, they will hear a soul- 
rejoicing summons, a sweet voice which will thrill 
them with heaven's own music: "Come, ye 
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom pre- 
pared for you. ' ' It will be the voice of the lov- 
ing Jesus, and then in a rapture of heavenly 
delight they will exclaim : ' ' Welcome, welcome, 
blessed Saviour! 1 ' and they will say to their dear 
ones around them, * ' Let me go, for the heavenly 
day breaketh." And they will be gone — gone 
to be forever with the Lord. 



AFFLICTION AND CONSOLATION 235 

I KNOW you are ripening for glory. The 
process of ripening is painful, but it is God's 
way. If it were not his way it would have been 
otherwise — for we believe that nothing happens 
by chance. So with the Lord's methods of 
bringing his chosen to glory. 

I KNOW, my brother, thou art on the way to 
thy glory-crown, for the spirit of the meek 
and lowly One is in thee. His companionship is 
the joy of thy heart, his blessing is the peace of 
thy soul, his sympathy is the comfort of thy 
spirit, his granted strength thy endurance in thy 
long and tedious affliction. The blessed result 
will be: His victory shall be thy victory; his 
glory thy glory. "Father, I will that they also 
whom thou hast given me be with me where I 
am. 

Brother, my prayer for thee is : That the rich 
blessing of the merciful Father may ever rest 
upon thee ; the sweet companionship of the lov- 
ing Saviour may ever cheer thee ; and the pres- 
ence of the sanctifying Spirit may ever enlighten, 
comfort and sustain thee. 

I know the dear Saviour will not disappoint 



236 PEN PARABLES 

his trusting children. To one dear suffering 
saint I once went, and as I entered her room I 
said, "I come to talk to you about Jesus." 

"Oh," said she, as her soul seemed to rejoice 
within her, "that is just what I want; just what 
I want." 

Another sufferer said to me: "Jesus will help 
me. Yes, he must help me, for I have com- 
mitted my all into his hand. ' ' 

Still another dear child of Jesus, one of the 
greatest sufferers I ever saw, kept continually say- 
ing, "When will he come? When will he come? 
I know he is mine. My faith has not a doubt. 
My soul has not a fear." Often, often did I 
pray with that suffering saint. At length the 
Master came. As the happy spirit took flight 
from the distorted, pain-racked body, twice did 
she bow her head like the dear Saviour, when on 
Calvary he bowed his head and gave up the 
ghost. She died in Jesus. 



REST, then, in faith and patient hope till the 
heavenly chariot calls at the door of thy 
poor clay body for thy blood-redeemed soul. 
Jesus himself shall receive thee, and taking thee 



AFFLICTION AND CONSOLATION 237 

up to the throne, he shall say to the Father. 
' ' Here is another who has come up out of great 
tribulation"; and the Father shall say, "Wel- 
come, my child. Give him a mansion, a crown, 
a kingdom. Array him in heavenly robes." 
And then shall begin the eternal glory-song in 
union with the countless throng of the redeemed 
gathered from the foundation of the world. 
"Unto him that loved us, and washed us from 
our sins in his own blood, and hath made us 
kings and priests unto God and his Father, to 
him be glory and dominion forever and ever. 
Amen." 





THE MINISTRY OF 
ANGELS 




OULD we know of the ministry of 
angels, let us look to the Word for 
illustration. As I have already no- 
ticed in connection with the prayer 
of our Saviour after his temptations, "Angels 
came and ministered unto him. ' ' In his agony 
in the Garden there "appeared an angel unto 
him from Heaven, strengthening him." When 
Abraham was about to offer up Isaac, an angel 
of the Lord spake to him, bidding him restrain 
his hand ; and appearing a second time to him 
foretold the blessings which would result to him 
and his posterity because of his faith. In Gene- 
sis 28 : 12 we have a remarkable visitation of the 
angels to Jacob in his dream. In Elijah's sor- 
row, when pursued by Jezebel, we have a most 
wonderful account of an angel's ministration to 
him, cheering, comforting, strengthening him for 
238 



THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS 



duty. We read of the angel calming the fears 
of Zacharias; calming the fears of Mary, and 
announcing the birth of Jesus; the angel-com- 
forters to the mourning women at the empty 
sepulcher of Jesus ; the most wonderful deliver- 
ance of Peter from prison by an angel of the 
Lord; and angels the bearers of the spirit of 
Lazarus to glory. 

Indeed, the dear Word abounds all through 
with blessed illustrations of the ministry of 
angels to the Lord's people. And assurances 
everywhere are given therein that they are the 
Lord's messengers sent for the help of his be- 
loved. David says: ''The angel of the Lord 
encampeth round about them that fear him, and 
delivereth them." "He shall give his angels 
charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways" ; 
and the inspired writer of Hebrews says: "Are 
they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to 
minister for them who shall be heirs of salva- 
tion?" 








COMMUNION 

To Rev. T. Y. Blanks, Meridian, Mississippi : 
OUR letters always give evidence to 
me that your heart is in the work of 
the Lord, and Christian communion 
is the delight of your soul ; and thus 
is it ever with the Lord's children. I delight in 
corresponding with you, because you are, I think, 
my first correspondent in holy things, in con- 
nection with the first library and religious pe- 
riodicals I ever sent out. Another of my earlier 
correspondents in this connection is Mr. David 
Low, Sioux City, Woodbury County, Iowa. 
He has from the first always sent me most cheer- 
ing, stimulating, and soul-comforting letters. 
He is a very active Sunday School worker ; has 
started many schools in the West, some of which 
are very prosperous. I have at different times 
sent him, I think, three libraries, and many 
copies of the Messenger and Child's Paper. I 
240 



COMMUNION 241 

have also some other cheering correspondents in 
the Sunday School work ; they write to me quite 
often ; and not infrequently their letters, as well 
as yours, arrive just when I need a word of cheer 
and comfort and encouragement. I am not al- 
ways on the shining mount, I often have dark 
days, discouraging times, and heartaches ; draw- 
backs, temptations and failures. It has been my 
prayer for years that at the mention of that 
Name my soul might ever respond with a rapture 
of heavenly joy. Often has this prayer been 
wonderfully answered. There is a joy I cannot 
explain ; my soul melts into tenderness, my heart 
is filled with warm emotions of holy love, my 
eyes overflow with tears of rejoicing; and I walk, 
completely emptied of self, in the lowly vale of 
humility in blessed companionship with my risen, 
glorious, interceding Redeemer. 

Yet as the dear disciples could not remain 
upon the mount with their transfigured Lord, but 
had to descend, so has it been with me ; and often 
the want of that intimacy of communion, and 
that joy in the dear Lord, prove the dark days of 
my pilgrimage through this wilderness world. 



242 PEN PARABLES 

To Rev. J. F. Duinkerke: 

WHAT light in darkness, what strength in 
weakness, what knowledge in the midst of 
our great ignorance, what peace in the midst of 
confusion, what encouragement from the depths 
of despondency have we received during the year 
just past, from the loving, sympathetic heart and 
the benignant hand of our never-forgetting heav- 
enly Father ! And so, while with the rapid flight 
of the days we deplore our want of activity and 
usefulness in those spheres which are to tell for 
time and eternity, yet, on the other hand, what 
counterbalancing joy have we at the remembrance 
of the blessings we have received in communion 
with our Saviour ! 

I thank the Master that my highest joy and 
holiest exaltation and sweetest peace are now in 
the lowly vale of deep soul-humility before my 
dear Lord. In this vale I find communion and 
sweet companionship with my Redeemer. Noth- 
ing whatever that earth can give can compare 
with blessings such as these. 



COMMUNION 24S 

Rev. T. Y. Blanks : 

AND now for a word of comfort as we hum- 
bly, meekly, sit beside our Saviour, and 
listen to his words of love : 

My little children, I could not but draw near 
to you in your communings with each other. 
Be not afraid, only believe; I, even I, am thy 
salvation. No weapon formed against thee shall 
prosper. I will be with thee in six troubles; 
and in seven will not forsake thee. * i Because he 
has set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver 
him." I will ever be at thy side; I will ever go 
before thee, holding up myself as a shield for thy 
defense against the powers of evil. Be kind, be 
humble, be patient ; for what does the Lord thy 
God require of thee but to walk humbly before 
him all thy days upon the earth? The moun- 
tains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but 
my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither 
shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith 
the Lord that hath mercy upon thee — and so I 
give my beloved rest. ' ' Little children, love one 

another." 

Ever yours in the Lord, 

P. I. Neefus. 



244 PEN PARABLES 

Rev. J. F. Duinkerke: 

WOULD that I could find words to express 
to you and Brother Meyers my hearty 
thanks for your brotherly Christian call upon 
me, and your Christian prayer so fervently ut- 
tered for this poor unworthy man. The prayer 
came at just the time I much needed it. I felt 
that the dear Lord was present with us. If you 
and Brother Meyers have had such joy since that 
hour of holy communing together with our Lord 
as I have had, I well know how you feel, and 
what thanksgiving of praise and devotion have 
gone up to the blessed Saviour. Ah, does not 
the ecstatic soul- joy and soul-rapture of the child 
of God in the holy exercise of prayer prove that 
prayer is a glorious reality, a heaven-sent bless- 
ing? What an uplift from the transitory to the 
enduring! What a revelator of the things of 
Jesus to the penitent soul! What a heavenly 
panacea for every ill ! What a strength for duty ! 
What an inspiration for the service of our Lord ! 
What a prevailing power for the securing of bless- 
ings upon self and upon others ! What a guide to 
holy, pure, soul-elevating thought ! What a sin- 
slayer ! What a Satan-dispeller ! What a quick- 
ener in holy faith! What a pride humiliator! 



COMMUNION 245 

Through this holy soul-exercise what companion- 
ship with his Saviour the Christian enjoys: yea, 
what sweet Emmaus-walks often does he have 
with his Lord ! Well indeed it is said : 

"Prayer is the Christian's vital breath, 
The Christian's native air : 
His watchword at the gates of death, 
He enters heaven with prayer. ' ' 

May our dear Lord spare us to meet face to 
face again around the mercy-seat. 



To Mr. J. M. Meyer: 

AS an illustration of the benefits of Chris- 
tian communion one with the other, I 
need only allude to the blessed time when you 
and I and our dear brother, Rev. Duinkerke, a 
short time ago were the recipients of such rich 
blessings, as in my study we together talked of 
the things of the kingdom of our Jesus, and ere 
we parted bowed the knee in prayer to our kind 
heavenly Father. I shall never forget that oc- 
casion. The savor of the holy benefit we all 
received that day, I doubt not has followed us to 
this hour. It is such Christian intercourse that 
enlivens holy hope, strengthens holy faith, stimu- 



246 PEN PARABLES 

lates Christian zeal, enlivens holy joy in the 
heart, and makes more and more real to the soul 
the blessed religion of our Lord Jesus. By such 
communion we find that we are not isolated in 
our Christian experience, but find that others 
have the peculiar trials, temptations, sorrows, 
afflictions, drawbacks, want of faith and love and 
zeal. 

It is no wonder at all to me that those who 
seek to go on in the Christian life without often 
communing with the brethren, become gloomy, 
discouraged, faint, ready to give up, and in great 
perplexity concerning their spiritual condition. 
Spiritual growth is induced very greatly by the 
interchange of Christian thought with the breth- 
ren, by concert of prayer with and among believers 
in communion with the Saviour. Large bless- 
ings, we read, are promised to the little prayer- 
meeting of but two or three. "There am I," 
says the Master, "in the midst of them to bless 
them. ' ' Did we not all find this promise ful- 
filled in our little prayer-meeting? May the 
good Lord spare us all to meet again, and receive 
another benediction of mercies from his gracious 
hand. 



COMMUNION <W 

To Mrs. Russell: 

THE interchange of Christian thought is al- 
most always abundantly productive of 
growth in grace, of increase in holy faith, of 
renewed effort for an increase in personal holi- 
ness, and of more earnest zeal in the Lord's cause. 
Christian communion stimulates Christian souls 
in holy aspirations after increasing Christian 
growth. I always feel a holy jealousy toward 
those who are in advance of me in holy things. 
What a solace, too, is Christian communion for 
that despondency and discouragement which 
sometimes seizes upon our poor hearts and clouds 
our minds, when, like one of old, we are inclined 
to say, "All these things are against me.' 1 I 
well remember how, many years ago, my spirit 
was greatly tried and grieved in certain spiritual 
directions. I thought my case a very peculiar one, 
one which no other Christians ever knew of ; so I 
went to one of the elders of the church, a godly 
man, in whom I had the greatest confidence, and 
laying my case before him, asked him if ever he 
had such temptations, such doubts, such fears. 

' ' Oh, yes, ' ' said he, ' ' and far worse than you. 
I have often thought and done like you in the 
midst of my trials and temptations and discour- 



248 PEN PARABLES 

agements ; gone to others to ask them if they ever 
had had similar experience, and I have always 
found that their experience closely tallied with 
my own. ' ' 

Oh, what a comfort to my heart was that holy 
experience — the conversation with that godly 
man ! My soul has ever since, for thirty years, 
felt the benefit of it. How was I strengthened, 
encouraged, animated with new hope, and led 
nearer to the dear Saviour. Blessed indeed is 
Christian communion ! 



To Miss Annie McNair: 

THE soul-feast of happiness in communion 
with the dear Lord, which the poverty- 
stricken Lazarus enjoyed in his infirmity, was in- 
finitely above the shadowy pleasures of the rich 
Dives. Not from without but from within, as 
from the expanding flower, comes the fragrant 
perfume of a joyous, contented life. 

That perfume in the Christian soul which 
makes life so blessed in itself, so radiant, so use- 
ful, so lovely in the eyes of others, is the in- 
dwelling grace of the Holy Spirit — a life of faith 
hid with Christ in God. 



COMMUNION 249 

I rejoice greatly that from such a holy foun- 
tain in thy soul come forth the streams of thy 
life- joy. 

To Mrs. L. S. Russell: 

OH, that all might come to this holy foun- 
tain for the water of Life, might sit in its 
shade-groves of sweet soul-cheering retreat from 
the world's strife, the world's evil, and the world's 
sin ; might drink spirit-refreshing draughts from 
the crystal springs of divine love all along the 
cast-up highway where the redeemed of the Lord 
shall walk to the Fatherland ; might feast upon 
the heavenly manna of divine grace — eat the 
luscious fruits of holy love. And as the good 
Legh Richmond wrote on the memorial stone of 
Elisabeth Walbridge, the dairyman's daughter, 
"she tasted heaven e'en while she lingered here," 
so God's own beloved may come into that blessed 
companionship with the dear Redeemer in which 
they may have such heavenly experiences and 
foretastes as these ! 



250 PEN PARABLES 

To Mrs. Jennie Ray. 
Dear Christian Sister: 

YOU cannot imagine the deep anxiety my de- 
lay in answering your many precious Chris- 
tian epistles has from time to time caused me. 
Nothing whatever but the want of opportunity, 
occasioned by necessary attention to business 
matters, has prevented my writing at length to 
you. I beseech of you, give yourself no worry- 
ing thought over a fancied impression that I have 
received or taken offense at anything you have 
written to me. Such, beloved in Christ, is not 
the spirit of the poor unworthy one who is now 
penning these lines to thee. 

In the blessed fold of our loving Saviour, how 
sweet the communion, the companionship of his 
little children! Loving tender hearts, such as 
the grace of the dear Spirit ever works in the 
Lord's beloved, can little think ill of each other, 
or do a wrong to mar each other's joy. In the 
true spirit of Jesus, how well his own do know 
each other ! How well they understand, as they 
feel through the Spirit's work in their souls, the 
holy love-cords which bind them to their Lord, 
and so bind them to each other! Dear spirit, 



COMMUNION 251 

let no troubled thought in this direction for a 
moment check the peaceful flow, the holy heart- 
joy of thy communion with thy Lord; nor inter- 
pose the least barrier to our saint-communion in 
Christ. ,_ 

To Rev. David Low: 

I KNOW, my dear brother, thy labors, thy self- 
sacrifice in holy things for the Master are 
far greater than mine ; far more useful and pros- 
perous. Yet still, let us now, hand in hand, 
standing together upon the threshold of the newly 
opened door of 1888, lift up our eyes and hearts 
to Heaven and utter together this prayer of 
faith: 

"Dear Lord, help us as we start upon our 
journey into the unseen, unknown future of the 
year we have just entered. Prepare us for all 
that is awaiting us in it. Be thou, blessed 
Saviour, our constant companion, that so our 
communion with thee may result in holy uplift- 
ing for our souls, heavenly cheer for our spirits, 
and at last a gracious acceptance with thee in thy 
kingdom. Blessed Spirit, enlighten our minds ; 
grant us continually new revelations of holy 
things, that thus we may become more zealous, 



252 PEN PARABLES 

more efficient and so more useful in thy service. 
Oh, help us to walk penitently, humbly, meekly, 
before thee, our Lord. Take thou possession of 
our hearts, let self sink into nothingness; let 
Christ be magnified. Let the world recede and 
Heaven advance. Dear Master, prepare us for 
all thy will, and so with thy aid we take our 
start for the journey before us. May we be 
cheered by thy presence to the end, for Jesus' 
sake. Amen. ' ' ^_ 

To Rev. David Low: 

IT gave me much pleasure to hear from you. 
You and your dear wife are often in our 
thoughts, in our conversation, in our prayers. I 
do not write flatteringly, but it is a source of 
much joy to me to think of you both in your 
kind visit to us. Our meeting, for me, was one 
of the bright little oases in life's desert, so many 
of which I have thus far on the wilderness 
journey been privileged to find in the love and 
companionship of the Saviour's dear children. 
How it helps bear burdens of trial, how it cheers 
a drooping spirit, how it strengthens holy faith, 
encourages holy hope, and revives and renews 
Christian energy, to come in contact with con- 



COMMUNION 253 

genial Christian spirits, which are akin to and 
sympathetic with our own. When we meet with 
those who have the same views with us in Chris- 
tian living, working and carefulness of Christian 
example, in reverence for the Master's glory; a 
tender heart- love inwrought by the dear Spirit, 
which is ever ready to manifest itself in the lov- 
ing act and the falling tear — how does such 
Christian companionship help us ! 

To James F. Lemon : 

AND now ere we leave communing with each 
other, let us pray : 
"Oh, blessed Saviour, come in especial mercy 
to this thy afflicted child ; ease, if thou wilt, the 
sufferings of his body ; but above all, strengthen 
the faith, increase the joy, and intensify the holy 
hope of his soul. Grant him soul-comforting, 
holy communion with thyself; and so, giving 
him the assurance of heavenly joy, while yet he 
tarries in the body, grant him the foretastes of 
that joy. Holy Spirit, reveal more and more 
of Jesus to him as his ransom from the power of 
sin, and as the seal of his passport to Heaven. 
O heavenly Light, so shine upon his soul, that 



254 PEN PARABLES 

in the rapturous anticipation of the glorious 
morn, his happy spirit shall become insensible to 
the pains and sufferings of his wasting body. 
Refresh and encourage him continually with thy 
presence, blessed Saviour; and when the end 
shall come, take him to dwell with thee forever in 
thy heavenly eternal rest. Amen. ' ' 



I PRAY that your soul may continually be 
upon the mount of holy communion with 
your dear Lord ; that you may have a river of 
holy joy flowing through your heart by day, and 
songs of delight in the night. All this the Mas- 
ter is abundantly able to give you. And as you 
lean upon him, lean hard. 

AND now as we linger together in heavenly 
places in Christ our Lord, we will pray : 
' ' Lord, remember thy afflicted servant in much 
mercy. If it is thy will, restore him to health 
again ; or if his sickness is to continue, give him 
thy grace to enable him to endure. Take not 
thy Holy Spirit from him; but may he be 
enabled ever through his presence and power to 
say and feel: ' Jesus, whom have I in heaven but 



COMMUNION 255 

thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire 
beside thee. ' Master, take care of all his loved 
ones, spare them unto him, and bring us all at 
last to thy glorious heaven, for Jesus' sake. 
Amen. ' ' ._ 

I CLOSE this long letter with a little prayer for 
thee and thy faithful wife : 
' ' Dear Saviour, regard in great mercy thy 
afflicted servant ; send him health again if thou 
wilt ; if not, strengthen him to endure, and help 
him to glorify thee in his affliction ; strengthen 
his faith, encourage his hope, cheer his spirit. 
Help him to say, 'Thy will be done.' May the 
leaning of his soul on thee be so sweet and com- 
forting that it shall at times give him blessed 
relief from bodily suffering. Grant unto him 
many sweet foretastes of the glory to which in 
thine own way thou art leading him. May his 
path be always bright before him, and may he 
ever see the Canaan-home beyond. May the 
partner of his life be spared long to him, and 
together may they be journeying towards the 
eternal rest, the family-home above. Amen." 



256 PEN PARABLES 

To Rev. T. Y. Blanks: 

AND now, let us take our seats beside the 
dear Saviour and hold a little season of 
sweet communion with him : 

' ' We love thy holy presence, dear Redeemer. ' ' 

' ' Yes, and I love to be one of thy company. ' ' 

' ' Blessed One, we have come to ask a favor at 
thy hand.' ' 

"Yes, ask what thou wilt and I will give it 
thee — I delight to comfort and bless my chil- 
dren. 1 ' 

"We want a deeper, more abiding sense of 
pardoned sin." 

"Yes, that will come in all its fulness and 
power as thou dost penitently rest more and more 
fully upon my atoning sacrifice for sin. ' ' 

' ' We need more holy light upon our way. ' ' 

"Trust me — I will be thy Light and thy Sal- 
vation. ' ' 

"We confess with shame, dear Lord, that oft 
we fear lions in our way. ' ' 

4 ' Be not afraid, I will be thy Shield, thy De- 
fense ; no evil shall set upon thee to hurt thee. ' ' 

"We have often mourned thy absence, blessed 
Lord ; and now from this time on till life's clos- 
ing hour wilt thou abide with us?" 



COMMUNION 257 

' ' I never did withdraw from thee ; thy want of 
faith, of trust, of love, were all the cause of thy 
withdrawal from me ; it wounded my heart — but 
I forgive all. Return unto me and I will return 
unto thee. I will never leave thee nor forsake 
thee. I will come in and sup with thee. No 
love is so tender and enduring as mine. Behold 
these feet, these hands, this side, see the scars 
upon my back — upon my brow ; once in agony 
of soul on Calvary's cross I cried, 'My God, my 
God, why hast thou forsaken me?' These scars, 
this agonizing cry, my life's blood, are the price 
of thy eternal redemption. The Holy Spirit 
beareth witness with thy spirit that thou art 
mine; and my prayer for thee is, 'Father keep 
through thine own name those whom thou hast 
given me.' " 

"We thank thee, blessed Lord, for thy com- 
pany, so cheering, so comforting, so heavenly. 
Forgive our offenses against thee. ' ' 

' ' I freely all forgive. ' ' 

"Help us in our weakness." 

"In me is thy strength. ' ' 

"Though our poor hearts may often be chilled, 
continue still to love us." 

"I have loved thee with an everlasting love." 



258 PEN PARABLES 

' 'No man is able to pluck them out of my 
Father's hand." 

"Dear Redeemer, we humbly thank thee for 
this sweet communion season with thee. Unwor- 
thy, unworthy we are, all our worth is in thee. 
Oh, continue to us this heavenly, feeling sense of 
thy love and presence. May our lips speak forth 
thy praise. May our lives show forth thy love. ' ' 

4 ' I will help thee — thy least earnest effort for 
me will I reward, even here below, with a rich 
heavenly blessing; and for thy final reward, 
' Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 
entered into the heart of man, the things that 
my Father hath prepared for them that love 
him. ,,, 

"Dear Lord, on this blest mount wilt thou 
abide with us — and help us to abide with thee. 
From this time on, oh let us grasp thy loving 
hand, and journey onward to our heavenly 
home!" 

Thus, my dear brother, does our Lord permit 
us to sit in heavenly places. May this be our 
comfort, our strength, our joy, to the end. 

In this companionship with the Saviour I wish 
you a Happy New Year. 



A -^rCi jfll^5---* r^v^D t~<z >=J7 L n&~ h2 



- 



POSTWORD 

HE following is an extract from the 
Year Book of the Reformed Church 
of America for 1910: 

Mr. Peter Neefus, late of Flat- 
bush, Brooklyn, New York, was for nearly nine 
years a member of the Board of Education of 
the Reformed Church of America. In the year 
1900, by the gift of $17,000, he established the 
John and Mary Martin Educational Fund, for 
the benefit of students preparing for the ministry 
of the Reformed Church in Rutgers College and 
in New Brunswick Theological Seminary. As a 
living donor, he participated in the selection of 
students admitted to the benefit of this fund, and 
was particularly interested in all the work of the 
Board of Education. 

Peter I. Neefus was born March 30, 1832. 
His father, John Neefus, was a descendant of 
Joannes Nevius who emigrated from Holland to 
259 



260 PEN PARABLES 

New Amsterdam about 1650. His mother was 
Mary Martin Allges, a Dutch descendant of the 
Rev. Vincentius Antonides, who was sent by the 
Classis of Amsterdam to preach to the Dutch 
settlements on Long Island, in 1704. He always 
lived in the colonial residence built by his father 
in 1820, on the site of the old homestead which 
was built in 1700, on property owned by his 
ancestors for more than two hundred years. His 
father, John Neefus, was in the War of 1812 in 
camp on Fort Green under Gen. Jeremiah John- 
son. Mr. Peter Neefus graduated from Colum- 
bia College in 1854 ; married Mary Van Kleck in 
1858, daughter of Rev. R. D. Van Kleck, prin- 
cipal of Erasmus Hall Academy. 

Their only child, a daughter, died at the age 
of fourteen. 



IN the Memorial prepared by the Board of Edu- 
cation of the Reformed Church of America 
occurs the following : 

"No one could associate with Mr. Neefus for 
any length of time without being impressed with 
the beauty of his Christian character, or recog- 
nizing in his bearing, his conduct, and his speech 



POSTWORD 261 

the undoubted characteristics of a man of God. 
His daily life, if we could accurately portray it, 
would be his most eloquent eulogy, revealing 
as it did 'a man after God's own heart,' quiet, 
modest, unassuming and devout, a humble dis- 
ciple and follower of Jesus Christ. 

"The influence for good of such a life is im- 
measurable. It makes the world better. It 
furnishes a practical illustration that life is worth 
living. It augments the glory of Heaven. ' 



The Brooklyn City Mission and Tract Society, 
in a letter of condolence to Mrs. Neefus, says : 

We have heard with profound regret of the 
death of Mr. Peter Neefus, for many years a 
director, and at the time of his death, a member 
of the Advisory Board of this society. 

Realizing the power and influence of Mr. Nee- 
fus 's life, we desire to place on record our appre- 
ciation of it. He might be spoken of as a 
Christian gentleman of the old school ; one whose 
uprightness made him an example for the rising 
generation, whose piety found practical expres- 
sion in works of love and mercy, and whose 
generosity led to contributions to and coopera- 



262 



PEN PARABLES 



tion with many organizations having for their 
purpose the spread of the gospel and the evan- 
gelizing of the world. His counsel and coopera- 
tion will be sadly missed by many such organiza- 
tions, as well as by many individuals whose lives 
have been cheered and burdens lightened by his 
kindly Christian sympathy and generous financial 
aid. 




JUL 7 >9»< 






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